7" 


Southern  branch 
of  the 

University  of  California 

Los  Angeles 


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UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  AT  LOS  ANGELES 

THE  UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 


This  book  is  DUE  6u  the  last  date  stamped  below 


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WOV  19   1946 
FEB      3  194 

MAft  2  I J958 

JAN*0* 
JAN      6  1964 


OUR  EUROPEAN 
NEIGHBOURS 

EDITED  BY 

WILLIAM  HARBUTT  DAWSON 


SWEDISH  LIFE  IN  TOWN  AND 
COUNTRY 


a. 
O 


z 

K 

I- 
Ul 

IX 

> 


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a. 


SWEDISH  LIFE 
IN  TOWN  AND 
COUNTRY   &    & 

fc  By  O.  G.  von  Heidenstam 


-xo6  4  a 

ILLUSTRATED 


is 

I  > 


G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 
NEW  YORK  AND  LONDON 

Cbe  fmfckerboc&er  lprees 
1911 


U0543 


Copyright,  1904 

BY 

G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 


Published,  October,  1904 
Reprinted,  April,  1906  ;  January,  1911 


e     c         •  e  * 


<         1 


t  1        ,  '  . 


•       #     0  •  »     <  e  <•  f  •     j        • 

•  *  •  v  *  ■    •       . 


Ubc  Tftnicfterbocher  press,  Wcw  JJorh 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I 
The  Land  and  the  People     . 


CHAPTER  II 
Government  and  Political  Life 


PAGE 

i 


37 


CHAPTER  III 
The  Capital 62 

CHAPTER  IV 
Public  Education 89 


CHAPTER  V 


Literature 


CHAPTER  VI 
Early  Art  and  Culture 


in 


140 


CHAPTER  VII 


Modern  Art 


• 


CHAPTER  VIII 
Public  Life  and  Morality  . 


.    159 
.    181 


CHAPTER  IX 
Agriculture,  Industry,  and  Trade  .       .       .304 

V 


vi  Contents 

CHAPTER  X  pagb 

Rural  Life 225 

CHAPTER  XI 
Beneficent  Foundations 248 

CHAPTER  XII 
Sports  and  Games 262 

Index 281 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

A  Peasant  Family  Returning  from  Work 

Frontispiece 

A  Peasant  Home 6 

A  Swedish  Village  and  Church  .        .        .        .  10 

A  Laplander's  Hut 18 

The  Royal  Palace,  Stockholm  ....  24 

Opening  oe  the  "  Riksdag  "         ....  46 

A  Sloyd  Class  ........  92 

A  School  Bath        .               94 

A  Cooking-Class  in  a  Swedish  School      .       .  104 

Peasant  Costumes  .              200 

A  Swedish  Pasture  Farm 206 

Going  to  Church                           .       „  212 

vii 


viii  Illustrations 

PAGE 

Harvesting  Scene 214 


A  Young  Swedish  Giri, 250 

Ice-Boat  Saiung 270 

Salmon  Fishing— Drawing  the  Net  .       .        .278 


SWEDISH  LIFE  IN  TOWN  AND 
COUNTRY 


SWEDISH  LIFE  IN  TOWN 
AND  COUNTRY 


CHAPTER  I 

2  e  6  A  O 

THE  LAND  AND  THE   PEOPLE 
i 

A  GLANCE  at  the  map  will  show  that  the 
Scandinavian  Peninsula,  that  immense 
stretch  of  land  running  from  the  Arctic  Ocean  to 
the  North  Sea,  and  from  the  Baltic  to  the  Atlantic, 
covering  an  area  of  nearly  three  hundred  thousand 
square  miles,  is,  next  to  Russia,  the  largest  terri- 
torial division  of  Europe.  Surrounded  by  sea  on 
all  sides  but  one,  which  gives  it  an  unparalleled 
seaboard  of  over  two  thousand  miles,  it  hangs  on 
to  the  Continent  by  its  frontier  line  with  Russia  in 
Lapland.  Down  the  middle  of  this  seabouud  con- 
tinent, dividing  it  into  two  nearly  equal  parts, 
runs  a  chain  of  mountains  not  inappropriately 
called  Kblen,  or  the  Keel.  The  name  suggests 
the  image  which  the  aspect  of  the  land  calls  to 
mind,  that  of  a  huge  ship  floating,  keel  upwards, 


2  Swedish  Life 

on  the  face  of  the  ocean.  This  keel  forms  the 
frontier  line  between  the  united  kingdoms  of 
Sweden  and  Norway :  Sweden  to  the  east,  sloping 
gently  from  the  hills  to  the  Baltic;  Norway  to  the 
west,  running  more  abruptly  down  from  their 
watershed  to  the  Atlantic. 

Sweden's  share,  about  one  hundred  and  seventy- 
three  thousand  square  miles,  is  nearly  equal  to 
France  or  Germany,  and  one  and  a  half  times  the 
size  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland.  Its  population, 
a  little  over  five  millions,  places  it,  on  the  other 
hand,  on  a  par  with  Portugal  and  Holland,  and 
after  Belgium.  As  to  nature  and  climate,  the 
country  can  only  be  compared  to  itself.  Extend- 
ing as  it  does  over  six  and  a  half  degrees  of  lati- 
tude, that  is,  one  seventh  of  the  distance  from  the 
pole  to  the  equator,  its  climate  and  nature  offer 
considerable  variety  and  contrast.  They  have,  in 
fact,  divided  Sweden  into  three  distinct  regions, 
and  history,  following  in  the  footsteps  of  nature 
and  climate,  has  confirmed  the  distinction.  Norr- 
land,  the  whole  northern  half  of  the  kingdom,  a 
vast  area  of  ninety-three  thousand  square  miles, 
is  the  land  of  very  short  summers  and  very  long 
winters,  of  high  mountains  and  great  rivers,  rivers 
which  rise  in  the  long  mountain  range  and  run  in 
almost  parallel  lines  to  the  sea,  forming  navigable 
waterways  to  the  coast  two  and  three  hundred 
miles  long;  the  land  of  great  primeval  forests  and 
swampy  wildernesses,  where  man,  dwarfed  by  the 
immensity  of  nature  and  isolated  by  the  immensity 


The  Land  and  the  People        3 

of  space,  is  slow  to  awaken  to  political  life  and 
to  found  large  and  prosperous  communities,  but 
where  endurance  and  self-reliance,  courage  and 
enterprise,  are  taught  by  the  constant  struggle 
with  an  overpowering  environment;  the  land  of 
vast  timber  and  mining  industries,  of  daily  in- 
creasing importance  and  wealth,  and,  above  all, 
of  great  future  possibilities.  Svealand,  the  mid- 
land of  Sweden,  is  the  region  of  great  lakes  and 
smiling  pasture  lands,  of  well-tilled  fields  and 
well-to-do  peasant  homesteads,  of  prosperous 
towns  and  flourishing  industrial  enterprise,  the 
centre  of  government,  of  political  and  intellectual 
life.  And  finally  Gota/and,  the  southern  portion 
of  the  kingdom,  with  its  immense  seaboard  and 
mild  maritime  clime,  is  the  land  of  the  Goter,  or 
Goths,  who,  in  days  of  old,  left  these  shores  in 
their  viking  ships  to  sweep  the  seas  as  far  as  the 
Straits  of  Gibraltar,  and  to  found  kingdoms,  in  con- 
junction with  other  hardy  Northerners  from  neigh- 
bouring shores,  along  the  coasts  and  waterways 
of  Europe  and  Africa;  the  land  of  the  Varagers, 
or  Varangians,  who,  under  Rurik,  descended  the 
rivers  of  Russia  and  built  Novgorod  and  Kief, 
from  whence  they  threatened  the  powerful  Empire 
of  Byzantium,  the  Miklagdrd  of  their  Sagas;  or 
formed,  later,  the  trusted  body-guard  which  main- 
tained the  effeminate  porphyrogenite  emperors  on 
their  throne.  The  south-western  provinces  of 
Sweden  are  to  this  day  the  richest  in  the  land; 
the   ports  along   their  seaboard,  the  centres  of 


4  Swedish  Life 

commercial  activity  and  seafaring  enterprise,  are 
rivalled  alone  by  the  capital  which  dominates  the 
midlands;  and  their  rich  arable  lands  and  teeming 
factories  are  the  principal  sources  of  Sweden's 
agricultural  and  industrial  wealth. 

These  shores  are  the  first  that  meet  the  eye  of 
the  traveller  who  visits  Sweden,  which  he  must 
approach  by  sea,  whether  he  comes  by  steamer  to 
Gothenburg,  crosses  the  Sound  from  Copenhagen 
to  Malmo,  or  from  Elsinore  to  Helsingborg,  or  ar- 
rives from  Berlin  via  Sassnitz  and  Trelleborg,  the 
three  great  highways  that  lead  to  the  country. 
Let  us  take  either  of  the  middle  routes;  they  re- 
present the  shortest  sea  passage.  Running  parallel 
to  the  coast  of  Denmark,  and  to  all  appearances  a 
continuation  of  the  same  on  the  other  side  of  the 
Sound,  the  Swedish  coast  will  appear  ere  the 
Danish  has  been  lost  sight  of — a  low-lying  sandy 
shore,  dotted  here  and  there,  amid  clusters  of  trees 
reaching  down  to  the  beach,  with  smoking  chim- 
neys and  timber-built  windmills.  The  latter, 
dark-hued,  shutter- rigged,  with  high-peaked  roofs, 
resembling  the  helmet  and  visor  of  an  ironclad 
warrior,  stand  waving  their  giant  gaunt  arms,  as 
though  signalling  in  some  mysterious  language 
to  the  ships  at  sea  or  to  the  mainland  across  it. 
The  chimneys,  commonplace  and  prosaic,  repre- 
sent modern  Sweden,  industrial  and  progressive. 
The  windmills,  picturesque  and  fantastic,  repre- 
sent ancient  Sweden,  poor,  adventurous,  and 
heroic.     While  humbly  tilling  her  own  fields  and 


The  Land  and  the  People        5 

grinding  her  own  corn,  she  had  her  eyes  fixed  on 
the  world  without,  where  the  sons  of  her  soil  were 
playing  their  part  in  the  drama  of  history.  A 
Swedish  poet  has  graphically  pictured  the  scene 
when  the  women  of  the  hamlet  set  the  old  wind- 
mill going,  although  they  had  no  corn  to  grind 
and  there  was  no  grist  for  the  mill,  that  it  might 
wave  its  farewell  to  the  youths  leaving  their  homes 
to  join  the  wars  of  Charles  XII.  The  fields  lay 
fallow  for  want  of  men  to  till  them,  the  mills  stood 
still  for  want  of  corn  to  grind,  but  the  King  wanted 
men,  and  the  last  youths  remaining  must  go  to 
fill  the  gaps  in  his  army;  so  on  leaving  the  shore 
they  should  see  the  mill  of  the  hamlet  bidding 
them  Godspeed.  The  windmills  go  on  grinding 
all  along  the  coast,  unmindful  of  the  march  of 
time,  and  the  same  spirit  animates  the  people. 
Yet  pride  in  the  memories  of  a  great  past  in  no 
way  diminishes  their  eagerness  to  keep  well 
abreast  of  the  present,  to  continue  to  play  their 
part,  not  as  of  jrore  in  warfare  and  battle,  but  in 
the  fields  of  invention,  discovery,  industry,  and 
science.  As  their  poet  Tegner  sang,  early  in  the 
last  century,  when  the  loss  of  Finland,  following 
on  that  of  Pomerania  and  the  Baltic  provinces, 
put  an  end  to  Sweden's  continental  empire  and 
closed  the  era  of  her  greatness, — 

"  We  had  conquered  a  world  at  the  point  of  our  swords, 
Let  us  now  win  the  world  by  our  song  and  our  thought." 

Along  the  coast,  facing  the  blue  waters  of  the 


6  Swedish  Life 

Sound,  lie  flourishing  towns,  Malmo,  Landscrona, 
Helsingborg;  and  beyond  them,  on  the  heights, 
stand  a  royal  summer  residence,  Sofiero,  and  the 
stately  chateau  of  Kulla-Gunnarstorp,  command- 
ing the  wide  stretch  of  the  entrance  to  it.  On  the 
Danish  coast  opposite,  rises  the  grand  old  castle 
of  Kronborg,  where  Shakespeare  made  a  Danish 
prince  teach  the  world  wisdom,  a  glorious  back- 
ground to  a  magnificent  picture.  Between  the 
two  shores,  the  Sound,  a  radiant  sheet  of  blue 
waterway,  extends,  on  one  side,  to  the  open  sea 
of  the  Kattegat,  where  the  ships,  with  outspread 
sails,  seem  to  lose  themselves  in  infinity,  and  on 
the  other  to  the  broad  expanse  of  the  Baltic, 
where,  in  the  midst  of  the  summer  blue,  rise  the 
white  banks  of  the  island  of  Hven,  on  which 
stood,  four  and  a  half  centuries  ago,  Tycho 
Brahe's  observatory,  Uranienborg.  King  Oscar 
II.,  who  now  comes  to  shoot  hares  on  the  white 
"Star  Island,"  with  his  guests  from  Fredensborg, 
— the  Danish  royal  family  and  their  royal  and  im- 
perial family  circle,  an  assembly  representing 
most  of  the  thrones  of  Europe, — is  having  the 
celebrated  astronomer's  favourite  resort  excavated 
and  restored. 

Inland,  the  country  is  as  fiat  as  on  the  coast 
and  richly  cultivated,  wheat,  rye,  oats,  and  barley 
alternating  with  the  beetroot,  which  is  so  exten- 
sively grown  to  supply  the  numerous  sugar  fac- 
tories with  their  raw  material;  with  here  and  there 
a  patch  of  woodland,  fine  beech  trees  clustering 


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The  Land  and  the  People         7 

together  in  the  midst  of  a  stretch  of  green  pasture, 
where  cattle  graze  lazily.  The  beech  thrives  best 
on  the  plain,  and  rarely  tolerates  any  other  tree 
beside  it.  Here  it  is  in  its  element  and  reigns 
supreme.  Light  and  airy  in  spite  of  the  massive 
tree-tops,  graceful  in  spite  of  the  giant  trunks, 
these  beech  woods  have  a  great  charm.  They 
do  not  possess  the  sombre  grandeur  of  the  more 
northern  pine  forests;  they  are  gayer  and  alive 
with  song.  On  the  skirts  of  the  wood  may  be 
seen  the  white  walls  of  the  freehold  peasant's 
farm,  its  barns  and  cattle-sheds,  its  patch  of  gar- 
den and  orchard;  and  in  the  distance,  pointing  to 
the  sky,  the  heavy,  square-built  steeple  of  a 
church,  which  stands  alone  on  the  height  in  soli- 
tary majesty,  with  "God's  acre,"  its  modest 
tombstones  and  crosses,  buried  in  verdure  and 
dotted  with  flowers,  stretching  out  behind  it. 
Beyond,  in  dignified  loneliness,  is  the  castle-like 
mansion  of  some  nobleman,  solid  and  heavy,  its 
towers  and  gables  rising  in  the  midst  of  a  far- 
spreading  park,  and  surrounded  by  gardens, 
orchards,  and  hothouses.  In  architecture  and 
style,  it  bears  the  impress  of  Danish  culture  and 
art,  a  reminiscence  of  the  times  when  the  three 
southern  provinces  of  Sweden — Halland,  Skane, 
and  Blekinge — belonged  to  Denmark.  Some  of 
the  finest  estates  of  Sweden  lie  in  the  South, 
estates  of  twenty  and  thirty  thousand  acres  of 
land,  cultivated  by  their  owners,  who  live  per- 
manently on  their  lands,  and  are  bound  to  it  by 


8  Swedish  Life 

family  tradition  and  uninterrupted  ownership. 
They  belong  to  the  oldest  families  of  the  country, 
and  their  names  run  through  almost  every  page 
of  its  history. 

We  meet  with  few  villages  and  hardly  any 
towns.  The  freehold  peasant  lives  on  his  farm, 
in  the  midst  of  his  fields,  and  shuns  village  life ; 
the  towns  lie  mostly  along  the  coast;  Malmo  and 
Helsingborg,  as  we  have  seen,  on  the  Straits 
of  Oresund;  Ystad,  Calmar,  and  Carlskrona,  the 
military  harbour,  on  the  Baltic;  and  Halmstad  and 
Gothenburg  on  the  Kattegat,  and  the  Skager- 
ack.  Kristianstad,  the  provincial  capital,  and 
L,und,  the  university  town,  lie  inland,  but  in  close 
proximity  to  the  seaboard. 

The  south  of  Sweden  is  the  most  thickly  popu- 
lated part  of  the  country.  The  rural  districts 
count  over  fifty  inhabitants  per  square  kilometre, 
but,  including  the  populations  of  the  towns,  the 
density  of  the  population  rises  to  seventy-five  per 
square  kilometre.  It  is  also  the  best  cultivated — 
thanks  to  the  rich  nature  of  its  soil  and  its  climatic 
advantages.  Of  the  total  area,  nearly  74$  is  under 
cultivation,  13$  being  woodland,  4.9$  natural 
pasture  land,  and  8.1$  wasteland,  building-laud, 
and  land  otherwise  utilised.1  As  we  advance 
farther  north,  towards  the  midland  provinces,  the 
nature  of  the  country  changes  in  a  very  marked 
fashion.  The  flat  low-lying  country  has  come  to 
an  end.  It  now  undulates  over  hill  and  dale. 
1  Sveriges  Land  och  Folk,  Gustav  Sundbarg. 


The  Land  and  the  People        9 

The  beech  no  longer  predominates  as  in  the  low 
lands.  Forests  of  oak,  heavy  and  massive,  forests 
of  pines,  sombre  and  silent,  extend  mile  after  mile; 
and  woodlands  of  birch  and  limes  spread  out  on 
the  border  of  pasture  lands.  Glittering  sheets  of 
water  meet  the  eye  everywhere.  We  are  in  the 
land  of  the  lakes.  The  Vener,  the  Vetter,  the 
Hjelmar,  and  the  Malar  are  little  inland  seas. 
The  Vener  covers  2150  square  miles;  the  Vetter^ 
732;  the  Malar,  449;  the  Hjelmar,  172.  Linked 
together  by  canals  they  form  a  waterway  right 
across  Sweden  from  the  Baltic  to  the  North  Sea, 
connecting  Stockholm  with  Gothenburg.  By  the 
side  of  these  giant  lakes  smaller  ones  abound, 
spread  over  the  whole  face  of  the  country.  It  is 
a  common  saying  that  you  cannot  stand  on  any 
given  spot  in  these  districts  without  having  a  lake 
in  view  somewhere,  if  not,  indeed,  several  in  suc- 
cession. Of  the  no  millions  of  acres  forming  the 
surface  of  the  country,  over  Sj4  millions  are 
covered  by  lakes.  Large  and  small  they  dot  the 
green  earth  with  blue  wherever  the  eye  turns. 
The  peasants  call  them  the  eyes  of  the  earth;  and 
limpid  and  blue  they  are,  like  the  eyes  of  the 
Northern  maiden.  In  winter,  the  whole  scene 
changes;  the  lakes  are  turned  into  a  bright  sheet 
of  ice  and  covered  with  virgin  snow  like  the 
fields.  Summer  and  winter,  they  form  a  valu- 
able feature  in  country  life;  they  provide  the 
whole  neighbourhood  with  water  and  ice  for  the 
dairy,    furnish   excellent  fishing,    and   facilitate 


io  Swedish  Life 

communication,  by  boat  in  summer,  over  the  ice 
in  winter. 

A  red  house  here  and  there,  rust-coloured  and 
thatched,  a  glimpse  of  shining  water,  a  stretch  of 
green  fields  and  emerald  prairies,  and  a  dark-hued 
pine  forest  in  the  background  reaching  up  to  the 
horizon — such  is  the  landscape  that  presents  itself 
everywhere,  as  seen  in  the  sheen  of  the  long  sum- 
mer day  or  in  the  wonderful  glamour  of  the 
Northern  twilight.  On  closer  acquaintance,  how- 
ever, you  find  that  the  pasture  lands  lying  in  the 
open  spaces  of  the  forest  are  alive  with  grazing 
cattle,  and  resound  with  the  bright  call  of  the 
woollen-clad  cow-girl,  and  the  tinkling  bells  of 
the  cows,  as  they  gather  around  her.  The  farm- 
house on  the  edge  of  the  prairie,  timber-built  and 
daubed  with  red  ochre  to  preserve  it  from  dry-rot, 
is  surrounded  by  barns  and  cow-sheds  and  various 
out  houses  of  the  same  rusty  colour;  they  lie  about 
without  plan,  unprotected  by  outer  wall  or  en- 
closure. The  other  red  dots  in  the  landscape — 
the  labourer's  hut,  the  woodman's  cabin,  and  the 
fisherman's  shanty — are  scattered  far  and  near  on 
the  edge  of  the  forest,  or  on  the  border  of  the  lake; 
while  looming  in  the  distance,  on  the  other  side 
of  the  watery  expanse,  rises  the  nobleman's  chdteau 
or  manor,  in  the  midst  of  its  park,  several  centuries 
old,  at  the  end  of  a  broad  alley  of  elms,  with 
gravelled  walks  winding  down  to  the  edge  of  the 
water,  where  lie  the  landing  bridge,  the  boat- 
house,  and  the  bathing  enclosure. 


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The  Land  and  the  People       n 

Most  of  the  chateaux  in  this  part  of  Sweden 
date  from  the  seventeenth  century.  They  were 
built  by  the  heroes  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War — 
Skokloster  by  Field- Marshal  Count  Wrangel,  one 
of  its  leaders  under  Gustavus  Adolphus;  Tido  by 
Axel  Oxenstierna,  his  Prime  Minister  and  Regent 
under  the  minority  of  his  daughter  Christina; 
Eriksberg,  which  belongs  to  the  Bonde  family — 
who  adorned  them  with  the  wealth  levied  on  Ger- 
man principalities  and  the  art  collections  carried 
off  from  German  cities. 

The  rural  population  is  less  dense  in  the  Mid- 
land provinces  than  in  the  South,  viz.,  thirty  to 
fifty  inhabitants  per  square  kilometre.  In  con- 
sequence of  the  prevalence  of  lakes  and  forest,  the 
area  under  cultivation  is  also  much  less  extensive; 
from  20  to  50$  only  of  the  total  area  of  land,  ex- 
clusive of  the  lakes,  is  under  cultivation,  40  to  60^ 
being  forest,  2  to  15$  natural  pasturage,  and  20  to 
30$  wasteland  or  building  ground  in  the  towns, 
which  lie  on  the  seaboard  or  on  the  larger  lakes, 
which  connect  them  with  the  sea.1  Out  of  the 
ninety-two  towns  of  Sweden,  over  one  half  lie  on 
the  coast,  and  the  rest,  with  very  few  exceptions, 
on  the  lakes  and  rivers.  It  is  only  since  railway 
communication  has  existed  that  small  inland  com- 
munities have  begun  to  arise  around  railway  sta- 
tions and  industrial  factories.  The  most  striking 
feature  in  these  rural  districts  is  the  isolation  of 
the  homesteads,  the  absence  of  large  agglomera- 
1  Sveriges  Land  och  Folk,  G.  Sundbarg. 


12  Swedish  Life 

tions  of  houses.  The  human  habitations  lie  apart 
rather  than  in  groups  forming  hamlets  and  vil- 
lages. The  farm,  the  hut,  the  cabin,  as  well  as 
the  chateazi  and  the  manor,  seem  each  to  form  a 
little  world  of  its  own  which  shuns  too  close  a 
contact  with  its  neighbours.  The  reason  lies  in 
the  character  of  the  Swedish  peasant,  who  prizes 
his  liberty  above  all  things,  and,  not  less  than  the 
nobleman,  likes  to  feel  that  his  home  is  his  castle, 
that  he  is  monarch  of  all  he  surveys,  sole  master 
of  his  immediate  surroundings.  Even  in  .the  vil- 
lages or  small  towns,  one  looks  in  vain  for  the 
typical  "High  Street"  which  runs  through  the 
middle  of  the  English  or  Continental  village,  with 
houses  packed  closely  together  on  either  side  of  it. 
In  the  Swedish  village,  the  houses  are  scattered 
about  far  and  wide  without  any  apparent  connec- 
tion with  each  other,  beyond  an  easy  access  to  the 
high-road  down  below  and  to  the  church  on  the 
height  above. 

The  church  is,  indeed,  the  general  meeting 
ground,  the  centre  of  the  whole  rural  com- 
munity, though  the  latter  may  be  spread  over 
an  area  of  fifty  square  miles,  and  contain  from 
twelve  to  fifteen  hundred  inhabitants.  Its  steeple 
is  visible  from  far  and  near,  and  all  the  roads  and 
pathways  round  about  seem  to  lead  up  to  it.  It 
stands  on  the  height  in  the  midst  of  the  church- 
yard, and  not  far  from  it  lies  the  parsonage  (Prest- 
garden),  a  little  farm  in  itself,  of  which  the  parson 
is   the   model   farmer;    while   alongside   are   the 


The  Land  and  the  People       13 

schoolhouse,  the  teacher's  dwelling,  and  potato 
field  or  cabbage  garden,  the  post  and  telegraph  of- 
fice, the  telephone  station,  the  apothecary's,  butch- 
er's and  grocer's  shops,  and  the  general  store. 
Here  is  centralised  the  parish  and  communal  gov- 
ernment. Here  the  peasant,  the  pastor,  and  the 
local  magnate,  all  equally  sous  of  the  soil,  hold 
sway,  and  share  among  them  the  functions  of 
local  administration.  The  freehold  peasant  and 
the  land-owning  nobleman  are,  indeed,  the  two 
powers  that  have  made  Sweden  and  rule  it. 
Between  them  they  founded  the  monarchy:  a 
mixture  of  quasi-autocratic  and  free  republican 
institutions.  Together  they  shaped  its  history 
and  moulded  its  constitution :  proudly  aristocratic 
and  ultra-democratic  at  one  and  the  same  time. 
To  this  day,  they  constitute  the  "  Landed  Party  " 
(Landtmannapartiei),  which  governs  the  country. 
And,  of  the  two,  it  is  the  peasant  who  has  the  better 
part  of  the  partnership  and  the  lion's  share  of 
power.  There  are  over  a  hundred  of  these  free- 
hold peasants  in  the  Riksdag  at  the  present  mo- 
ment, and  some  of  its  best  orators  and  cleverest 
debaters  are  to  be  found  among  them.  The  Swed- 
ish nobleman  has  had  so  large  a  share  in  Sweden's 
former  greatness  and  subsequent  development  that 
his  influence  remains  a  traditional  dogma  in  the 
minds  of  the  people.  But  the  peasant  knows  that  no 
great  decision  in  regard  to  the  government  of  his 
country  has  ever  been  taken  without  his  co-opera- 
tion, and  he  is  equally  jealous  of  his  traditional 


H  Swedish  Life 

authority;  moreover,  he  knows  how  to  use  it, 
representing  as  he  does  a  majority  of  the  electors. 
The  share  of  the  peasantry  in  the  ownership  of 
the  land  may  be  judged  from  the  fact  that  85$  of 
all  agricultural  property  in  Sweden,  representing 
an  aggregate  value  of  3100  millions  of  crowns 
(,£172,000,000),  is  cultivated  by  its  owners,  and 
only  15$,  including  the  Crown  lands,  which  con- 
stitute a  special  tenure  of  farm-land,  farmed  out; 
that  of  the  total  number  of  agricultural  estates  in 
the  land,  270,000  are  of  a  lesser  value  than  80,000 
crowns  (,£4,400),  the  amount  constituting  the 
qualification  for  election  to  the  First  Chamber, 
and  2000  only  of  a  larger  value;  that  the  entailed 
property  (fideicommis)  belonging  to  the  aristocracy 
consists,  in  all,  of  167  estates,  representing  an  ag- 
gregate value  of  134  million  crowns  (^7, 450,000, 
or  4.62$  of  all  agricultural  property  in  the  king- 
dom. One  fourth  of  the  cultivated  land  of  Sweden 
is  thus  in  the  hands  of  the  upper  or  richer  classes, 
those  owning  more  than  80,000  crowns  of  capital, 
or  paying  taxes  on  an  income  of  4000  crowns 
(^278),  while  three  fourths  belong  to  smaller 
owners,  who  cultivate  their  own  land.  The  agri- 
cultural population  numbered  nearly  three  mil- 
lions in  1899,  representing  55.78$  of  the  whole 
population,  while  industry  numbered  26.70$, 
trade  10.36$,  and  the  public  services  7.16$. 
Here,  as  elsewhere,  however,  industrial  expansion 
is  leading  to  a  change  in  the  relative  proportions 
of  the  urban  and  rural  population,  the  growing 


The  Land  and  the  People       15 

tendency  of  the  agricultural  labourer  being  to 
migrate  to  town  and  seek  work  in  a  factory.  The 
extent  of  this  migration  during  the  last  thirty 
years  may  be  judged  from  the  fact  that,  in  1870, 
the  agricultural  population  represented  71.8756, 
and  the  industrial  only  14.7156.  Compared  with 
the  percentages  for  1899,  this  constitutes  a  diminu- 
tion in  the  first  instance  of  1656,  and  an  increase 
in  the  second  of  1256.1  The  result  is  a  lack  of 
labourers  in  the  country  and  a  plethora  of  work- 
men in  the  towns. 

The  causes  of  the  movement  are  the  same 
as  everywhere  in  Europe  where  industrialism  is 
gaining  ground.  In  Sweden,  industry  is  of  com- 
paratively late  growth,  but  it  is  rapidly  extending, 
and  already  threatens  to  dethrone  agriculture 
from  the  dominating  position  it  has  hitherto  held 
in  the  economy  of  the  country  as  the  principal 
source  of  public  wealth.  Agriculture  itself  is  be- 
ing more  and  more  "industrialised"  by  the  use 
of  machinery  and  mechanical  processes,  by  the 
increasing  importance  of  the  part  played  by  the 
sugar  industries  in  regard  to  agriculture,  and  by 
the  new  methods  applied  to  the  dairy. 

Next  to  agriculture,  the  timber  and  mining  in- 
dustries are  the  greatest  sources  of  wealth  in 
Sweden.  The  forest  area  amounts  to  49}^  million 
acres,  or  4856  of  the  total  area  of  the  country,  not 
counting  the  area  covered  by  lakes  and  rivers. 
Sweden  is  the  greatest  timber  exporting  country 
1  Sveriges  Land  och  Folk,  G.  Sundbarg. 


\ 


1 6  Swedish  Life 

in  the  world.  Her  annual  export  of  timber 
amounts  to  150  million  crowns  (,£8,350,000),  be- 
sides 20^2  millions'  worth  of  wood  pulp  for  the 
manufacture  of  paper,  10  millions'  worth  of  paper, 
and  8  millions  worth  of  matches.  The  mining  in- 
dustries export  iron  to  the  value  of  55  millions,  and 
machinery  to  the  value  of  10  millions,  while  the 
dairies  export  butter  to  the  value  of  40  millions. 

Much  has  been  said  and  written  about  the 
beauty  of  the  Swedish  summers,  and  it  is  true  that 
their  charm  can  hardly  be  overrated.  Spring 
bursts  into  summer  almost  without  transition;  the 
last  traces  of  snow  have  hardly  disappeared  before 
the  whole  country  is  covered  with  the  richest  ver- 
dure, and  the  woods  are  alive  with  song.  As  a 
poet  has  said,  "Summer  treads  forth  a  giant  on 
leaving  his  cradle  of  ice. ' '  The  romantic  and  con- 
templative traits  in  the  character  of  the  Swedes, 
and  their  ardent  love  of  nature  are  attributed  to 
the  entrancing  effects  of  their  summer  landscapes, 
just  as  their  energy  and  physical  endurance  are 
said  to  be  due  to  the  severities  of  their  winter  life. 
In  country  life,  summer  is,  here  perhaps  more 
than  elsewhere,  the  period  of  greatest  human 
activity — it  is  so  short  and  the  days  are  so  long, 
and  there  is  so  much  to  do.  Reaping,  harvesting, 
sowing — all  the  husbandman's  work  has  to  be 
crowded  into  the  short  summer  months,  ere  the 
winter  shroud  has  fallen  on  the  earth,  placing  it 
beyond  the  husbandman's  reach  or  heed.  The 
sun  is  above  the  horizon   eighteen   or  nineteen 


The  Land  and  the  People       17 

hours  at  a  stretch,  raising  the  temperature  rapidly, 
and  hurrying  on  the  maturity  of  the  crops.  The 
twilight  nights  are  a  prolongation  of  the  day,  and 
barely  give  nature  time  to  cool  down.  There  are 
days  when  it  is  as  hot  in  Stockholm  as  in  Rome 
or  Madrid,  the  temperature  reaching  320  Cent,  or 
900  Fahr.  in  the  shade,  though  the  medium  sum- 
mer temperature  is  only  150  Cent.  (590  Fahr.). 

Winter  envelops  the  whole  country  in  its  giant 
sheet  of  hard,  crisp  snow.  The  lakes  and  rivers 
are  frozen  several  feet  deep,  and  covered,  with  the 
same  white  shroud  as  the  hills  and  the  plains. 
Over  this  wide  expanse,  levelled  into  a  smooth 
and  soft  uniform  surface,  the  peasant  drives  his 
sledge,  or  travels  on  his  skis,  up  hill  and  down 
dale,  over  fields  and  lakes,  almost  as  straight  as 
the  crow  flies.  The  openings  in  the  forest  are  as 
flat  as  a  carpet,  and  the  trees  felled  in  its  inner- 
most depths  can  be  carted  down  to  the  saw-mill  on 
easy  sledges  drawn  by  a  pony.  The  temperature 
has  fallen  to  150  or  200  below  zero  (—4°  Fahr.)  in 
Central  Sweden,  to  300  and  40°  Cent.  (220  and 
400  Fahr.)  in  the  North.  The  days  last  but  a  few 
hours,  but  the  sun  shines  brightly  on  the  glitter- 
ing snow,  and  there  is  a  bracing,  exhilarating 
feeling  in  the  crispness  and  dryness  of  the  still 
air.  The  duration  of  the  ice  and  snow  averages 
about  200  days  of  the  year  in  the  North,  150  in 
Central  Sweden,  and  115  in  the  South;  the  general 
thaw  and  the  breaking-up  of  the  ice  on  the  rivers 
and  lakes  take  place  in  April,   May,  and  June 


1 8  Swedish  Life 

respectively.  The  sea  along  the  northern  coasts 
freezes  every  year,  and  in  very  severe  winters 
even  the  Sound  between  Sweden  and  Denmark  is 
frozen  right  across,  so  that  a  passage  between  the 
two  countries  can  be  effected  on  foot  or  on  sledges. 
The  extremes  of  cold  and  heat  vary  also  consider- 
ably between  the  north  and  the  south  of  Sweden, 
the  medium  temperature  of  the  year  being  but  i° 
Cent.  (330  Fahr.)  at  Haparanda,  5. 6°  (400  Fahr.) 
in  Stockholm,  and  70  (44. 6°  Fahr.)  in  Malmo, 
as  compared  with  9.10  in  Berlin,  io°  in  London, 
and  10. 70  in  Paris.  Yet,  despite  this  severe  win- 
ter climate,  Sweden  is  the  healthiest  country  in 
Europe;  a  proof  that  extreme  cold  is  more  con- 
ducive to  health  than  heat.  The  yearly  death- 
rate  is  only  16.5  per  thousand,  against  18.6  in 
Denmark;  18.8  in  England;  20  in  the  Nether- 
lands; 20.3  in  Belgium  and  Switzerland;  22.2  in 
France;  23.8  in  Germany;  26.5  in  Italy;  27  in 
Austria;  31.8  in  Hungary;  and  33  in  Russia, 
though  in  the  last  case  other  causes,  independent 
of  the  cold,  contribute  to  raise  the  death-rate  to 
the  highest  in  Europe.  The  figures  in  regard  to 
the  medium  length  of  life  tell  the  same  tale.  Ac- 
cording to  international  statistics  the  medium 
span  of  life  is  50.2  years  in  Sweden;  49.94  in 
Norway;  45.43  in  England;  45.6  in  Belgium; 
43.75  in  Holland;  and  42.13  in  France. 

Physically  the  Swedes  are  powerfully  built  and 
tall,  of  the  pure  Scandinavian  type,  with  fair  hair 
and  blue  eyes.     Their  medium  height,  taking  all 


The  Land  and  the  People       19 

the  men  between  thirty  and  thirty-five,  is  170.8 
centimetres.  The  healthy,  intelligent  look  of  the 
people  strikes  the  traveller.  A  French  writer, 
who  had  been  studying  the  country,  thus  summed 
up  his  opinion:  "  L,a  vie  moyenne  est  ici  plus 
elevee  que  partout  ailleurs,  la  vie  intellectualle 
est  plus  vive,  plus  active;  tous  les  citoyens  savant 
lire  et  ecrire."  ' 

Although  their  country  presents  such  great 
variety  of  climate,  nature,  and  general  conditions 
of  life,  according  to  its  different  degree  of  latitude, 
the  Swedes  are  a  singularly  homogeneous  people. 
With  the  sole  exception  of  the  Lapps,  the  nomadic 
reindeer  herdsmen  of  the  extreme  North ,  they  are  all 
descended  from  the  same  old  Scandinavian  stock, 
unmixed  with  any  foreign  element.  They  have 
not  been  subjected  to  any  foreign  domination,  and 
have  been  but  little  influenced  by  foreign  culture. 
They  have  possessed  and  inhabited  their  country 
in  the  Scandinavian  Peninsula  over  five  thousand 
years.  Their  language,  with  its  sister  tongues 
Norwegian  and  Danish,  is  an  outcome  of  the  old 
Norse,  which  a  thousand  years  ago  was  common 
to  the  whole  Scandinavian  world.  Sonorous  and 
full  of  Gothic  strength,  it  is  clear  and  precise. 
Thanks  to  their  isolation,  both  geographical  and 
linguistic,  the  Swedes  have  thus  been  able  to 
maintain  the  perfect  purity  ol  their  race  and  their 
originality  of  culture,  to  develop,  as  it  were,  from 
within,  without  the  help  of  extraneous  influences. 

1  Jules  Claretie,  Press  Congress  in  Stockholm,  1879. 


20  Swedish  Life 

With  the  exception  of  Christianity,  which  they 
received  from  France  through  their  own  country- 
men the  Normans,  and  which  required  no  less 
than  three  hundred  years  to  implant  itself  defi- 
nitely in  the  country  and  to  overcome  the  Scandi- 
navian gods,  very  few  of  the  great  currents  of 
thought  which  remodelled  the  rest  of  Europe 
reached  them  or  exercised  any  permanent  in- 
fluence on  their  moral  development.  Neither 
Roman  culture,  Roman  law,  nor  the  feudal  sys- 
tem, which  ruled  mediaeval  society,  laid  its  im- 
press upon  them.  The  Roman  Church  exercised 
a  nominal  sway  for  two  centuries,  but  its  power 
was  never  very  effective.  The  Ultima  Thule  lay 
so  far  from  the  rest  of  the  world,  lost  in  the  mystic 
regions  of  the  ice-bound  North,  that  its  very  ex- 
istence seemed  a  myth.  Saint  Brigitta  was  the 
only  marked  personality  of  Roman  Catholic  Swe- 
den known  to  the  Popes,  and  her  work,  widespread 
as  it  was,  and  "oecumenical"  as  they  recognised 
it  to  be,  was  more  humanitarian  than  theological. 
She  was  the  first  apostle  of  "woman's  rights" 
the  world  has  known,  pleading  for  "mixed 
orders"  and  "mixed  convents"  to  insure  the 
frank  and  practical  co-operation  of  men  and  wo- 
men, monks  and  nuns,  in  aiding  suffering  hu- 
manity. Her  canonisation,  however,  was  due 
more  to  the  merit  of  her  pilgrimages  to  Rome  and 
Jerusalem  and  to  her  services  in  bringing  about 
the  return  of  the  Popes  from  Avignon  to  Rome 
than  to  her  pious  and  charitable  endeavours,  or 


The  Land  and  the  People      21 

the  example  of  ardent  faith  which  endeared  her 
to  her  countrymen  and  by  which  she  was  better 
known  in  her  own  country. 

Then  came  the  Reformation.  The  Swedes  re- 
ceived its  first  impulse  from  Germany,  through 
the  preachings  of  Olaus  Petri,  a  Swedish  pupil  of 
Luther's,  but  they  modelled  it  after  their  own 
fashion,  and  used  it  as  a  political  weapon  to  over- 
turn the  growing  power  of  the  Church,  which  was 
beginning  to  threaten  their  political  liberty.  King 
Gustavus  Vasa,  that  great  master-builder,  was 
just  then  busy  building  up  a  new  Sweden  out  of 
the  suffering  and  distracted  country  he  had  forci- 
bly severed  from  Denmark,  to  which  it  had  been 
joined  by  the  union  of  Calmar,  which  placed  the 
three  governments  of  Sweden,  Norway,  and  Den- 
mark in  the  hands  of  the  powerful  and  strong- 
minded  Queen  Margarita  by  the  election  of  her 
youthful  and  weakly  grandson, Erik  of  Pomerania, 
to  the  three  vacant  thrones.  With  the  aid  of  Olaus 
Petri  and  his  new  doctrine  of  freedom  of  con- 
science, Gustavus  Vasa  overthrew  the  centralised 
power  of  the  Roman  Church,  confiscating  its  ac- 
cumulated wealth,  and  erecting  in  its  stead  a  free, 
national,  and  democratic  church  on  L,uther's 
evangelical  basis,  just  as  he  had,  with  the  aid  of 
the  Dalecarlian  peasants,  thrown  off  the  yoke  of 
the  union  with  Denmark  and  erected  a  free  and 
democratic  monarchy. 

Both  the  monarchy  and  the  new  faith  might  have 
been  wrecked  under  the  reign  of  his  immediate 


22  Swedish  Life 

successors  had  they  not  sunk  into  the  hearts  of 
the  people  and  become  dear  to  the  nation,  which 
showed  itself  ready  and  able  to  defend  them. 
Erik  XIV.,  Gustavus  Vasa's  eldest  son,  was  an 
epicurean  and  a  sceptic.  His  reign,  one  of  aris- 
tocratic refinement  and  artistic  culture,  was  dis- 
tracted by  inward  strife  and  stained  by  bloodshed 
and  crime.  He  was  at  war  with  his  brothers, 
whom  the  will  of  their  father  had  made  governors 
of  provinces  with  independent  rights,  and  was 
surrounded  by  dissatisfied  noblemen,  whose  am- 
bitions he  endeavoured  to  curb.  Highly  gifted 
and  of  a  poetic  but  violent  temperament,  he  was 
fantastic,  vain,  and  suspicious.  After  courting 
in  turn  the  hand  of  Queen  Elizabeth  of  England, 
of  Mary  Queen  of  Scots,  of  Princess  Renee  of  Lor- 
raine, and  of  Princess  Catherine  of  Hess,  he  mar- 
ried and  raised  to  the  throne  the  daughter  of  a 
soldier  of  his  guard,  Karin  Mansdotter,  who  had 
been  his  mistress.  He  ended  his  days  in  madness, 
a  prisoner  in  the  Castle  of  Gripsholm.  by  the  will 
of  his  brother  John,  who  had  possessed  himself  of 
his  throne,  haunted  by  visions  of  those  whom  he 
had  sent  to  the  scaffold  or  stabbed  with  his  own 
hand  in  outbursts  of  insanity,  alternately  singing 
erotic  songs  on  his  lute  to  Karin  Mansdotter,  who 
alone  could  sooth  his  brooding  spirit,  or  composing 
hymns  of  deep  contrition  and  Christian  humility, 
some  of  which,  to  this  day,  form  part  of  the  Swed- 
ish Church  hymn-book. 

His  brother,  who  ascended  the  throne  as  John 


The  Land  and  the  People       23 

III.,  was  a  Roman  Catholic  at  heart,  being  mar- 
ried to  a  Polish  princess,  Catherine  Jagellonica, 
and  he  would  fain  have  led  Sweden  back  to  the 
Church  of  Rome  had  he  dared.  His  son  and  heir, 
Sigismond,  did,  indeed,  make  the  attempt  and 
lost  his  throne.  He  had,  moreover,  been  elected 
King  of  Poland — thanks  to  the  hereditary  rights 
of  his  mother — and  his  simultaneous  reign  over 
both  kingdoms,  threatened  the  political  as  well  as 
the  religious  liberties  of  Sweden.  He  was  de- 
posed in  favour  of  his  uncle,  Gustavus  Vasa's 
third  son,  Charles  IX.,  who  completed  the  work 
of  his  father  in  the  definite  establishment  both 
of  the  monarchy  and  the  Reformation. 

The  defence  of  these  brought  the  Swedes,  under 
Gustavus  Adolphus,  into  the  field  of  European 
politics.  They  undertook  to  save  the  Protestant 
princes  of  Germany  from  being  crushed  by  the 
powerful  League  of  the  Catholics,  and  to  prevent 
the  Empire  from  extending  its  all-invading  do- 
minion to  the  shores  of  the  Baltic.  The  campaign 
of  the  great  ' '  Champion  of  the  Faith ' '  on  the 
Continent  and  his  victory  at  Breitenfeld  (1631) 
saved  the  Reformation  and  at  once  raised  Sweden 
to  the  rank  of  a  first-class  Power.  The  fall  of  the 
hero  at  L,iitzen  seemed  to  threaten  this  position 
soon  after  it  was  attained;  but  it  was  saved  by  the 
capacity  of  the  generals  he  had  formed  under  him, 
by  the  devotion  to  the  cause  of  the  men  he  had  led 
away  from  their  homes  to  fight  in  it,  and  by  the 
political  genius  of  his  Minister,  Oxenstierna,  who 


24  Swedish  Life 

governed  the  realm  after  hirn,  during  the  minority 
of  his  only  daughter,  Christina.  The  acquisition 
of  Esthonia,  Livonia,  and  Pomerania  gave  Sweden 
absolute  supremacy  on  the  Baltic.  This  position  of 
primacy  was  maintained  for  three  quarters  of  a  cen- 
tury, under  the  reigns  of  Charles  X.  and  Charles 
XI.  It  was  the  period  of  her  greatness.  But  it 
proved  too  great  a  strain  on  the  material  resources 
of  the  country,  in  the  presence  of  the  mighty 
opposition  her  preponderance  on  the  Baltic  was 
arousing  among  her  neighbours.  The  titanic  life 
and  death  struggle  under  Charles  XII.,  in  which 
the  Swedes  carried  on  a  twenty  years'  war  on 
the  Continent  against  all  the  Powers  of  North- 
ern Europe,  arrayed  successively  against  them, 
brought  the  country  to  the  verge  of  ruin.  The 
world-renowned  victories  of  Charles  XII.  ended 
in  the  crushing  defeat  of  Pultowa,  where  the 
Russians  showed,  according  to  the  saying  of 
Peter  the  Great,  that  they  had  learned  in  their 
repeated  defeats  the  art  of  defeating  their  victor. 

Notwithstanding  the  volumes  that  have  been 
written  on  Charles  XII.  and  his  campaigns,  from 
his  own  days  to  ours,  his  character  is  still,  to  a 
great  extent,  a  mystery.  To  some,  he  is  the 
strong-willed  and  resolute  military  leader,  con- 
scious of  his  aims  and  pursuing  them  uncompro- 
misingly to  the  last,  and  a  hero  of  undying  fame; 
to  others,  he  is  the  unconscious  fatalist,  unbend- 
ing in  the  accomplishment  of  his  destiny,  a  self- 
willed  autocrat.     The  former  look  with  unbounded 


o 

I 

o 

o 


o 
< 

< 

Q. 

_l 
< 

>■ 

o 


The  Land  and  the  People       25 

admiration,  the  latter  with  feelings  more  akin  to 
pity,  on  the  self-sacrificing  devotion  of  the  Swedish 
people,  who  followed  him  loyally  to  the  end, 
through  good  and  bad  fortune,  ungrudgingly  and 
unmurmuringly. 

The  historian  Professor  Harald  Hjerne,  of 
Upsala,  who  is  the  latest  writer  on  the  subject, 
in  a  recent  work  of  thought  and  erudition,  Charles 
XII.  and  the  Subversion  of  Eastern  Europe,  i6gy- 
1703,  has  summed  up  the  results  of  modern  re- 
search and  treated  the  question  with  the  scientific 
impartiality  and  broadness  and  the  documentary 
precision  of  modern  historical  methods.  "  What- 
ever, ' '  he  says,  ' '  may  be  the  feelings  and  fancy 
with  which  we  regard  him,  Charles  XII.  is  and 
remains  an  epoch-making  personality,  not  only  in 
the  history  of  Sweden,  but  in  that  of  the  whole  of 
Europe,  as  much  by  his  defeat  as  by  his  victories. 
He  is  remarkable,  above  all,  for  the  manner  in 
which  he  conducted  his  great  struggle,  a  struggle 
which  he  could  not  avoid,  yet  which,  but  for  him, 
would  have  been  limited  to  the  Swedish  frontiers 
and  thereby  have  been  sooner  brought  to  an  end. 
He  converted  the  war,  which  his  adversaries  had 
intended  to  be  a  localised  attack  on  Sweden's 
dominating  position  on  the  Baltic,  into  a  far- 
reaching  upheaval  of  the  general  State  system 
of  Europe.  It  became  thereby  as  important  as 
the  war  which  was  going  on  alongside  of  it  for 
the  Spanish  succession,  and  was  involved  in  the 
manifold  changes  which  that  brought  about.    Out 


26  Swedish  Life 

of  this  double  crisis  issued  the  grouping  of  Powers 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  Charles  XII.  can 
no  more  be  detached  from  the  causes  leading  to 
the  same  than  Napoleon  can  be  considered  apart 
from  the  struggle  which  revolutionised  the  be- 
ginning of  the  nineteenth  century.  Both  these 
powerful  figures,  however  different  they  may  have 
been  in  character  and  natural  gifts,  have,  above 
all  other  men,  set  their  impress  on  their  epoch, 
and  forced  states  and  peoples,  large  and  small,  to 
come  forward  and  meet  in  a  decisive  trial  of 
strength.  The  world's  judgment  on  them  both 
cannot  help  being  determined  by  the  results  of 
their  life's  work,  such  as  these  appear,  for  good 
or  for  evil,  to  the  ever-changing  impressions  of 
successive  generations,  and  it  must  therefore  vary 
with  the  constant  changes  in  our  State  systems, 
which  produce  new  appreciations  of  historical 
personages  and  throw  new  lights  on  their  actions, 
their  intentions,  and  their  failures.  But  neither 
Charles  XII.  nor  Napoleon  can  be  confined  within 
the  narrow  and  exclusive  limits  of  national  tradi- 
tion." ' 

The  battle  of  Pultowa  was  not  in  itself  a  very 
important  one,  consisting  of  the  storming  of  the 
Russian  positions,  in  which  the  Swedes  were  re- 
pulsed; but  it  was  decisive  in  its  consequences. 
The  King,  being  wounded,  was  unable  to  com- 
mand  in   person,    although   present   during   the 

1  Harald  Hjorne,  Karl  XII.,  Omstortningen  i 
Ostenropa,    /6p^-//oj. 


The  Land  and  the  People       27 

attack,  carried  on  a  stretcher.  After  the  repulse 
he  was  conveyed  from  the  field  so  that  he  might 
be  out  of  danger  of  capture.  His  generals,  pur- 
sued by  Menchikoff's  cavalry,  were  divided  among 
themselves,  and,  demoralised  by  the  absence  of  the 
King,  they  capitulated  at  Perevolochna.  The  re- 
pulse became  thus  a  defeat.  Charles  XII.,  having 
lost  his  army,  crossed  the  frontier  into  Turkey, 
and  endeavoured  to  get  the  Sultan  to  furnish  him 
with  one,  with  which  to  retrieve  his  fortunes. 
After  five  years  of  fruitless  negotiations,  ending 
in  the  tragi-comic  adventures  of  Bender  and  De- 
motica,  where  he  was  made  a  prisoner,  the  King 
set  out  to  return  to  his  country.  Accompanied 
by  only  a  few  followers,  he  galloped  right  across 
Europe,  reaching  Stralsuud  in  fourteen  days,  a 
feat  which  modern  "distance  riders  "  might  envy. 
On  his  return,  he  found  Sweden  in  a  state  of  star- 
vation and  ruin.  Of  her  former  greatness,  nothing 
was  left  but  the  prestige  of  military  renown  and 
the  honour  of  patriotic  self-sacrifice.  Her  terri- 
torial acquisitions  on  the  Continent  were  lost,  and 
with  them  her  influence  in  the  affairs  of  Europe. 

As  long  as  the  unequal  struggle  had  lasted,  the 
people  had  remained  loyal  to  their  King,  cheer- 
fully giving  him  their  wealth  and  their  youth, 
and  submitting  to  his  despotic  mandates,  even 
when,  from  the  confines  of  Turkey,  he  insisted  on 
ruling  the  country  by  royal  decree  and  refused  to 
let  the  Estates  assemble  in  his  absence.  But  when 
a  stray  bullet  at  the  siege  of  Fredrikshald  —  in 


28  Swedish  Life 

the  new  war  he  had  embarked  on  against  Norway 
■ — put  an  end  to  his  heroic  and  adventurous  life,  a 
violent  reaction  set  in  against  his  autocratic  gov- 
ernment and  the  contempt  he  had  shown  for  the 
representative  rights  of  the  people.  In  electing 
his  sister,  Ulrica  Eleonora,  to  succeed  him  on  the 
throne,  the  Estates  imposed  on  her  a  new  consti- 
tution, which  reduced  the  royal  power  to  a  mere 
shadow,  and  vested  all  authority  in  the  Riksdag 
as  the  sole  governing  body.  L,ike  most  political 
reactions,  this  one  overshot  the  mark  and  defeated 
its  own  object.  It  replaced  the  absolutism  of  the 
monarch  by  the  absolutism  of  the  Estates,  to  the 
equal  disturbance  of  the  balance  of  power.  A  re- 
coil was  bound  to  ensue,  and  it  came  about  half  a 
century  later,  when  Gustavus  III.,  by  his  blood- 
less revolution  in  1772,  re-established  a  more  or 
less  absolute  monarchy.  It  was  to  be  the  type  of 
the  enlightened  and  liberal  monarchy  dear  to  the 
French  philosophers  and  academicians,  the  em- 
bodiment of  the  ideals  imagined  by  Voltaire  and 
Montesquieu,  with  whose  theories  and  political 
panaceas  Gustavus  III.  had  been  imbued  from  his 
childhood  by  his  clever  and  high-spirited  mother, 
Louisa  Ulrica,  sister  of  Frederick  the  Great.  It 
was  indeed  hailed  as  such  by  the  people,  tired  of 
the  instability,  the  party  strifes,  and  the  corrup- 
tion of  the  omnipotent  Parliament.  But  it  did 
not  remain  so  long.  Ideal  infallibility  is  not  in 
human  nature,  and  the  political  and  financial  con- 
trol imposed  upon  himself  by  the  revolutionary 


The  Land  and  the  People       29 

theorist  was  forgotten  by  the  absolute  monarch. 
When  financial  embarrassment  became  too  great 
he  declared  war  against  Russia  as  a  diversion,  to 
allay  opposition  at  home.  The  war  ended  honour- 
ably for  both  parties,  amid  a  somewhat  theatrical 
interchange  of  gallant  amenities  between  the  King 
and  Catherine  II.,  leaving  the  two  countries  in 
exactly  the  same  situation  as  before.  By  a  new 
coup  d'etat,  Gustavus  III.  then  gave  himself  un- 
limited power,  annulling  in  1789  the  liberties  he 
had  voluntarily  granted  in  1772.  Yet  his  personal 
popularity  with  the  masses  was  hardly  impaired 
by  this  high-handed  breach  of  faith.  He  was 
known  to  the  people  by  the  name  of  Tjusarko?iun- 
ge?i,  the  Charmer-King.  He  possessed  a  power 
of  fascination  which  few  could  resist,  in  spite  of 
his  studied  attitudes  and  want  of  sincerity.  Ex- 
ceptionally gifted  by  nature,  bright,  genial,  and 
regal,  he  exercised  on  the  crowd,  as  well  as  on  all 
who  approached  him,  the  powerful  influence  of  un- 
disputed superiority.  A  revolution  against  such 
a  monarch  was  not  likely  to  command  success; 
the  crowd  would  irresistibly  stand  by  him.  An 
assassin's  foul  bullet  was  the  only  solution  found 
by  cowardly  discontent.  It  struck  him  in  the 
midst  of  a  masquerade  ball,  at  the  Opera  House 
he  had  himself  raised  and  dedicated  to  the  National 
Muses — Patrice  Musee — by  the  hand  of  a  misguided 
nobleman,  Ankarstrom,  the  instrument  of  deeper 
and  more  consummate  schemers. 

Whatever    may    be    thought    of   its    political 


3o  Swedish  Life 

aspects,  the  reign  of  Gustavus  III.  was  one  of  the 
most  enlightened,  his  Court  one  of  the  most  bril- 
liant, in  Swedish  history.  As  the  poet  Tegner 
says,  "  There  lies  a  glamour  over  the  days  of  Gus- 
tavus, a  brightness  fantastic,  foreign,  and  worldly, 
if  you  will,  but  there  was  sunshine  in  it."  A  sort 
of  radiancy  and  joy  of  life  pervades  and  character- 
ises the  Gustavian  era.  It  was  strongly  influenced 
by  the  rococo  tastes  and  philosophic  tendencies 
of  French  society  and  letters  of  the  time,  yet  the 
powerful  instincts  and  the  native  idiosyncrasies 
of  the  North  never  entirely  lost  their  ground. 
Literature  and  art  attained  an  unprecedented 
lustre  under  this  double  influence.  Bellman 
founded  Swedish  lyrical  poetry;  Sergei  created  the 
Scandinavian  school  of  art,  to  which  the  Dane 
Thorwaldsen  afterwards  gave  a  world-wide  re- 
nown; French  classics  were  revived  in  Scandi- 
navian forms,  and  Court  poets,  like  Creutz  and 
Gyllenborg  praised  Swedish  nature,  while  Kjell- 
gren  composed  Swedish  dramas  after  classic 
French  models.  But  Thorild,  Leopold,  and  Anna 
Maria  Lenngren  drew  their  inspiration  from  native 
sources,  and  wrote  verses  with  a  pure  Scandinavian 
clang.  The  King  and  his  mother  loved  pomp  and 
ceremony  and  ostentatious  display.  They  sur- 
rounded themselves  with  all  the  wit  and  talent  of 
the  land,  copied  the  manners  and  etiquette  of  Ver- 
sailles, and  vied  in  making  their  reign  le  regne  du 
bel  esprit.  Their  Court  spoke  French,  affected 
Versailles  manners,  and  gave  itself  up  to  carousels 


The  Land  and  the  People       31 

and  private  theatricals.  Society  copied  the  Court 
and  emulated  it  in  intellectual  refinement  and  ele- 
gance of  manner.  The  bulk  of  the  people,  who 
only  spoke  Swedish  and  continued  their  healthy 
Northern  life,  were  nevertheless  enraptured  by 
Bellman's  songs,  amused  by  Anna  Maria  Lenu- 
gren's  exquisite  satires  on  life  and  society,  and 
permeated  with  the  love  of  nature  and  the  joy  of 
life  breathed  by  their  poets. 

Thus,  if  the  great  memories  of  Gustavus  Adol- 
phus  inspire  the  Swedes  with  the  pride  of  high 
deeds  and  military  glory,  and  those  of  Charles 
XII.  teach  them  the  virtue  of  self-reliance  and 
patriotic  self-sacrifice,  the  days  of  Gustavus  III. 
have  left  them  traditions  of  brilliancy,  refinement, 
and  culture. 

These  circumstances  must  be  borne  in  mind  in 
forming  a  judgment  on  the  national  character  of 
the  Swedes.  They  are  what  the  nature  of  their 
country  and  the  vicissitudes  of  their  history  have 
made  them.  They  have  all  the  love  of  action  and 
adventure  of  the  Vikings;  all  the  natural  pride 
of  past  greatness,  with  the  diffidence  and  self-dis- 
paragement of  altered  fortunes.  The  softness  and 
beauty  of  their  summers  has  given  them  their 
fondness  for  nature  and  the  kindliness  of  heart 
which  a  true  love  of  nature  inspires.  Read  their 
poets,  from  Bellman  and  Tegner  to  Snoilsky  and 
von  Heidenstam,  and  you  will  be  specially  struck 
by  these  characteristics.  Their  heroes  are  all  men 
of  action;    their  landscapes  are  living  pictures, 


32  Swedish  Life 

drawn  by  a  loving  hand  and  a  beating  heart;  their 
patriotism  is  inspired  by  an  intense  love  of  their 
native  soil.  This  love  of  nature  and  daring  ad- 
venture, combined  with  earnestness  in  scientific 
research,  is  typified  in  the  lives  of  such  men  as 
Iyinnseus,  in  his  generalisations  in  botan3r;  Berze- 
lius  and  von  Scheele,  in  their  researches  in  chem- 
istry; Nordenskiold,  in  his  Arctic  discovery,  and 
Sven  Hedin  in  his  travels  in  Central  Asia  and 
Thibet. 

The  very  contrasts  and  contradictions  in  char- 
acter, for  which  the  Swedes  are  noted,  seem  to 
remind  one  of  the  extremes  of  their  climate.  They 
are  decidedly  energetic,  and  yet  lacking  in  perse- 
verance; naturally  conservative,  yet  eager  to  adopt 
every  novelty;  alike  aristocratic  and  ultra-demo- 
cratic. They  unite  an  inborn  generosity  with  a 
propensity  to  envy;  a  love  of  ostentation  and  dis- 
play with  an  implicit  veracity  and  a  charming 
straightforwardness;  an  ardent  love  of  their  coun- 
try with  a  tendency  to  self-depreciation  and  an 
undisguised  admiration  for  everything  foreign. 
With  a  great  love  of  freedom  and  a  jealous  regard 
for  individual  independence,  they  are  great  hero- 
worshippers  and  ready  to  exalt  merit,  genius,  and 
courage  above  everything  else. 

Sweden  has  worked  out  its  internal  political 
problems  without  violence  or  bloodshed.  When 
one  reflects  on  the  horrors,  the  streams  of  innocent 
blood  which  the  solving  of  these  problems  has  cost 
other  nations,  one  must  admit  that  the  Swedes  are 


The  Land  and  the  People      33 

wise  and  well-balanced  as  a  people,  and  yet  there 
is  none  more  easily  excitable,  proner  to  enthusiasm 
and  readier  to  fight  for  an  idea.  "The  Swedes 
are  a  drum-beating  nation,  renowned  for  poverty, 
ape-like  pride,  and  haberdashery  distinctions," 
wrote  Bovalius,  soon  after  the  great  national  re- 
verses. "The  Swede  is  both  aristocratic  and 
democratic,"  says  Geijer  a  century  later;  "his 
imagination  is  at  once  creative  and  destructive;  he 
loves  his  freedom  above  all  things,  but  he  will  fall 
down  and  worship  heroism  or  genius."  And 
Verner  von  Heidenstam,  who  is  unquestionably 
the  leading  spirit  among  modern  Swedish  writers, 
defines  the  principal  characteristic  of  his  country- 
men to  be — self-irony:  an  eye  turned  within  to 
depreciate  and  belittle,  and  without  to  magnify 
and  honour;  a  propensity,  he  adds,  which,  if  al- 
lowed to  go  to  extremes,  may  become  a  tragic  and 
destroying  force.1 

The  patriotism  of  the  Swede  is  indeed  in  no 
ways  exclusive.  It  has  nothing  of  the  French 
chauvinisvie \  of  the  "  insular  "  feeling  of  the  Eng- 
lish, or  the  triumphant  sense  of  "  whipping  crea- 
tion "  of  the  American.  But  it  is  very  real, 
notwithstanding.  It  is  of  the  silent,  self-sacrific- 
ing character  which  distinguished  it  in  the  days 
of  Charles  XII.  It  is  no  longer  of  the  sort  which 
engenders  the  spirit  of  conquest;  it  is  of  the  per- 
haps nobler,  purer  quality  which  lives  and  thrives 
in  the  love  of  the  soil,  the  home,  the  language, 
1  Svenskarnes  Lynne,  V.  von  Heidenstam. 


34  Swedish  Life 

the  racial  traditions.  It  shuns  bluster  and  brag- 
ging, and  dreads  nothing  so  much  as  being  con- 
victed of  boasting — boasting  especially  of  a  past 
which  it  knows  will  never  return  and  has  been 
long  since  forgotten.  It  dreads,  also,  spiritual 
stagnation  and  intellectual  isolation,  which  are  a 
token  of  low  vitality.  It  has  but  one  ambition: 
to  prove  equal  to  the  intellectual  demands  of  the 
age  and  to  be  among  the  leaders  in  the  field  of 
progress,  which  is  its  modern  role  in  life. 

Of  his  former  greatness,  the  Swede  retains  but 
the  memory,  the  traditions  of  ancient  culture,  and 
also  the  rather  old-fashioned  forms  of  politeness 
and  courtesy.  Like  the  old  man  of  the  world 
who  has  travelled  much  and  seen  a  little  of  every- 
thing, he  betrays  by  his  manners  the  age  in  which 
he  has  played  his  part.  See  a  Swede  enter  a  room 
or  bow  to  a  lady,  and  you  will  at  once  be  reminded 
of  what  in  England  would  be  called  Grandisoniau 
manners,  or  in  France  the  manners  of  the  ancien 
regime.  Nothing  strikes  the  Swede  with  greater 
astonishment  than  the  stolid  and  studied  blunt- 
ness,  the  hatred  of  anything  like  striking  an  atti- 
tude of  the  modern  Britisher.  Attitude  is  with 
him  second  nature;  it  is  taught  him  at  school,  it 
is  part  of  his  idea  of  politeness  and  courtesy.  To 
stand  bolt  upright,  to  strike  his  heels  together  and 
bow  low,  to  move  softly  and  elegantly  in  a  room, 
and  bend  over  a  lady's  hand,  to  lower  his  hat  to 
the  ground  in  passing  one  in  the  street,  to  doff  it 
to  all,  high  and  low,  to  go  up  and  bow  to  the  lady 


The  Land  and  the  People       35 

of  the  house  after  dinner  in  thanks  for  the  hospi- 
tality  received,  or,  on  the  part  of  the  host,  to  drink 
with  every  one  of  his  guests  in  order  of  rank — all 
these  things  are  to  his  mind  essentials  of  good 
manners  and  as  much  a  sign  of  good  breeding  as 
speaking  to  a  superior  in  the  third  person  and 
giving  him  his  title  at  every  phrase.  His  lan- 
guage contains  no  equivalent  for  the  word  "you." 
He  addresses  his  familiars  as  "  thou,"  and  all 
others  in  the  third  person,  by  their  name  or  their 
title.  This  would  sound  unbearably  stilted  in 
any  other  language,  but  it  has  become  quite 
natural  in  Swedish,  as  no  other  word  is  provided 
by  the  grammar,  and  habit  gives  ease  and  pro- 
ficiency in  the  redundant  use  of  titles.  In  fact, 
all  attempts  to  coin  an  appropriate  word  and  estab- 
lish its  general  use  have  utterly  failed.  The  spirit 
of  the  people,  as  well  as  the  genius  of  the  lan- 
guage, seems  to  be  against  it. 

This  mixture  of  social  conservatism  and  lively 
interest  in  novelty,  in  every  forward  step  made  by 
the  world  in  the  interest  of  humanity  at  large, 
has  given  Sweden  national  stability  while  saving 
her  from  the  stagnating  effects  of  isolation.  She 
has  been  able  to  avoid  alike  the  want  of  self-re- 
straint of  democracies  and  the  evils  of  what  Mr. 
Herbert  Spencer  calls  '  'over-government. ' '  Like- 
wise the  strong  democratic  feeling  ingrained  in 
the  people,  tempered  by  the  old  sentiment  of 
loyalty  and  personal  attachment  to  the  ruling 
head,   gives   her    monarchical    government    the 


36 


Swedish  Life 


strongest  guarantees  of  popular  support  in  tra- 
versing the  natural  evolutions  necessary  to  con- 
tinued progress  and  in  avoiding  that  unrest  and 
discontent  of  the  masses  which  is  the  general  sign 
of  the  times. 


CHAPTER  II 

GOVERNMENT  AND   POLITICAL  LIFE 

QWEDEN  is  a  constitutional  monarchy,  united 
O  with  Norway  in  a  political  partnership  which 
allows  each  of  the  partners  complete  legislative 
and  administrative  independence.  The  sovereign 
is  King  of  Sweden  and  Norway.  United  under 
the  same  king  and  dynasty,  the  two  kingdoms  are 
as  one  in  relation  to  foreign  Powers.  In  regard 
to  internal  rule,  however,  they  are  separate;  their 
governments,  local  administration,  Parliament, 
army  and  navy,  laws  and  institutions  are  quite 
distinct  and  independent  of  each  other,  except  in 
matters  of  common  interest,  f  Thus  the  Swedish 
Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs"Tias  charge  of  the  re- 
lations of  the  United  Kingdoms  with  foreign  gov- 
ernments; and  the  Foreign  Office,  composed  of 
Swedish  and  Norwegian  functionaries,  and  the 
diplomatic  and  consular  representatives  abroad, 
who  are  subjects  of  either  country  but  represent 
Sweden  and  Norway  conjointly,  are  common  to 
both.  A  delegation  of  the  Norwegian  Cabinet  re- 
sides at  Stockholm  while  the  King  is  in  Sweden, 
to  form  his  Norwegian   Council.     In  the  same 

37 


38  Swedish  Life 

way,  part  of  the  Swedish  Ministry  accompany  his 
Majesty  to  Norway  whenever  he  takes  up  his 
residence  there.  Political  treaties  with  foreign 
Powers  are  entered  into  in  the  name  of  both  king- 
doms, but  commercial  and  other  conventions  may 
be  concluded  separately  for  each,  as  their  special 
interests  may  require.  The  King  presides  over 
the  Council  and  issues  his  orders  in  Council  for 
each  country  apart.  All  matters  concerning  the 
interests  of  both  are  treated  in  a  Common  Council 
{Sammansatt  Statsrad),  composed  of  members  of 
the  two  Cabinets.  All  decisions  concerning  peace 
or  war  must  be  adopted  in  this  Common  Council. 
In  regard  to  matters  of  secrecy  and  moment,  con- 
cerning foreign  relations,  diplomatic  negotiations, 
etc.,  a  special  arrangement  provides  that  these 
shall  be  laid  before  the  King  for  his  decision  by 
the  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs  in  the  presence  of 
the  Swedish  Premier  and  the  head  of  the  Nor- 
wegian States  Council  in  Stockholm.  The  ex- 
penses of  the  Civil  L,ist  and  of  foreign  affairs  are 
shared  by  both  countries  in  proportion  to  their 
population.  Thus  Sweden  contributes  1,420,000 
crowns  (18  crowns  =  £1)  and  Norway  490,000 
crowns  to  the  Civil  List,  while  443,000  crowns  are 
paid  by  the  former  and  180,000  crowns  by  the  lat- 
ter for  the  cost  of  the  common  diplomatic  repre- 
sentation abroad,  the  estimates  being  voted  by 
the  legislature  of  each  country  separately,  and 
calculated  in  the  proportion  of  }f  for  Sweden  and 
■fr  for  Norway.     The  Consular  Service  is  sup- 


Government  and  Political  Life    39 

ported  partly  by  budget  grants  and  partly  by  con- 
sular fees  levied  on  navigation.  In  this  the  share 
of  Sweden  is  4  of  the  direct  grant,  or  160,000 
crowns  a  year,  and  92,690  crowns  paid  in  fees  by 
her  shipping  (budget  of  1899),  and  those  of  Nor- 
way f  of  the  direct  grant,  viz.,  120,000  crowns  and 
213,340  crowns  paid  by  her  shipping,  which  is 
considerably  larger  than  that  of  Sweden. 

The  Swedish  constitution  dates  from  the  Revolu- 
tion of  1809,  which  deprived  Gustavus  IV.  and 
his  heirs  of  the  throne,  and  founded  the  Berna- 
dotte  dynasty,  which  at  present  occupies  it.* 
Gustavus  IV.  had  all  his  father's  autocratic  pro- 
pensities and  pride,  without  the  brilliant  talents 
and  the  personal  attractions  which  in  his  father 
to  a  great  extent  redeemed  them.  A  military 
martinet  and  a  religious  mystic,  he  believed  him- 
self to  be  a  chosen  vessel  of  Providence  to  revive 
the  military  glory  of  Sweden,  and  to  avenge 
royalty  and  Europe  of  the  humiliations  they  had 
suffered  at  the  hands  of  Napoleon.  The  result  of 
his  ill-starred  and  distracted  political  manoeuvres 
was  to  raise  a  mighty  coalition  against  Sweden 
abroad,  France,  Denmark,  and  Russia  combining 
to  deprive  her  of  Finland,  the  last  foothold  she 
had  on  the  Continent,  and  to  bring  to  a  crisis  the 
growing  discontent  at  home,  the  latent  opposition 
to  the  absolutism  created  by  Gustavus  III.,  which 
had  cost  that  monarch  his  life,  breaking  out  in  a 
sudden  revolution  which  deprived  his  son  of  the 
throne.     Gustavus  IV.  was  arrested  in  his  palace 


40  Swedish  Life 

(March  13,  1809)  without  a  hand  being  raised  in 
his  favour  or  a  drop  of  blood  shed,  was  declared 
by  the  Estates  to  have  forfeited  his  throne,  and 
was  conducted  with  his  family  out  of  the  country.  ; 
The  crown  was  offered  to  the  Duke  of  Soderman- 
land,  the  deposed  King's  uncle,  who  had  been 
Regent  during  his  minority,  and  he  ascended  the 
throne  as  Charles  XIII.,  after  swearing  to  the 
new  Constitution  voted  by  the  assembled  Estates, 
which  limited  the  royal  prerogatives.  Charles 
XIII.  having  no  children,  an  eventual  successor 
to  the  throne  had  to  be  chosen,  and  the  Estates 
assembled  for  that  purpose  at  Orebro,  in  18 10, 
elected,  from  several  candidates  proposed,  as  heir 
to  the  throne  and  founder  of  a  new  dynasty,  Mar- 
shal Bernadotte,  Prince  de  Ponte  Corvo,  one  of 
Napoleon's  generals,  who  had  made  himself 
favourably  known  to  the  Swedes  while  Governor- 
General  of  the  Hanseatic  Towns  and  in  command 
of  the  French  armies  in  Northern  Germany.  As 
Crown  Prince  of  Sweden  and  adopted  son  of 
Charles  XIII.,  the  French  Marshal  soon  gained 
immense  popularity  in  Sweden.  Devoting  him- 
self heart  and  soul  to  the  interests  of  his  adopted 
country,  he  joined  the  European  coalition  against 
Napoleon,  after  concluding  treaties  with  Russia, 
England,  and  Prussia  (August  30,  18 12;  March 
13  and  April  13,  18 13),  and  landed  at  the  head 
of  thirty  thousand  Swedes  in  Germany,  where 
he  took  command  of  the  united  forces  against 
Napoleon  and  led  them  to  victory  at  the  battles  of 


Government  and  Political  Life    41 

Grossbeeren  and  Dennewitz  (August  23  and  Sep- 
tember 6,  1 8 13),  which  dealt  the  first  blow  at  Napo- 
leon's power.  After  the  battle  of  Leipzig,  which 
completed  his  defeat,  the  Swedish  Crown  Prince, 
declining  to  share  in  the  invasion  of  France,  turned 
against  Marshal  Davoust  and  the  Danes  on  the 
Elbe,  invaded  Holstein,  and  obtained  by  the  peace 
concluded  at  Kiel  (January  14,  18 14)  the  cession 
to  Sweden  of  Norway  by  Denmark.  The  Nor- 
wegians, however,  refused  to  ratify  this  cession, 
claiming  the  right  to  dispose  of  themselves.  They 
assembled  at  Eidsvold,  proclaimed  their  indepen- 
dence and  chose  their  own  king,  a  scion  of  the 
Danish  throne,  who  was  governing  them  as  Vice- 
roy for  Denmark.  In  virtue  of  the  stipulations 
of  the  treaty  concluded  at  Kiel,  the  Swedes,  under 
their  popular  Crown  Prince,  invaded  Norway 
and,  after  taking  Fredrikshald  and  the  fortress  of 
Fredriksteen,  concluded  with  the  Norwegian  Pro- 
visional Government  the  treaty  of  Moss  (August 
14,  1814),  by  which  the  union  with  Sweden  was 
accomplished.  Norway  was  recognised  in  this 
union  as  "an  independent,  inalienable  kingdom, 
joined  to  Sweden  under  the  same  King."  On 
the  death  of  Charles  XIII.  in  18 18,  Bernadotte 
ascended  the  double  thrones  of  Sweden  and  Nor- 
way as  Charles  XIV.  John.  Under  his  rule  and 
that  of  his  successors,  Oscar  I.,  Charles  XV.,  and 
Oscar  II.,  the  present  monarch,  both  kingdoms 
have  enjoyed  ninety  years  of  peace  and  prosperity, 
and  no  small  share  of  their  moral  and  material 


42  Swedish  Life 

development  is  due  to  the  enlightened  rule  of  their 
sovereigns. 

The  Swedish  constitution  provides  that  ' '  The 
King  shall  rule  the  realm."  His  decisions  must 
be  taken  in  Council  after  hearing  the  advice  of  his 
Ministers,  who  are  answerable  to  Parliament  for 
the  advice  given.  He  chooses  his  Ministers,  and 
he  decides  finally  after  hearing  them.  All  mat- 
ters, great  or  small,  must  be  submitted  to  him, 
and  all  appointments  to  the  public  services  of  any 
importance  are  made  by  him  and  signed  with  his 
sign  manual.  He  can  declare  war  or  conclude 
peace  after  hearing  his  Council.  He  issues  all 
orders  in  military  and  naval  matters  which  are 
countersigned  by  the  Minister  of  War  or  Marine. 
He  is  styled  the  defender  of  truth  and  justice,  and 
has  to  prevent  injustice,  and  to  allow  no  one  to 
be  molested  or  deprived  of  his  life,  honour,  or 
personal  liberty  unless  he  be  legally  judged  and 
condemned;  no  one  to  be  disturbed  without  cause 
in  the  peace  of  his  home,  to  be  exiled  from  one 
place  to  another,  to  be  constrained  in  his  con- 
science and  not  allowed  full  liberty  in  the  practice 
of  his  religion,  provided  he  do  not  thereby  disturb 
public  peace  and  cause  public  scandal.  The  King 
must  cause  every  one  accused  to  be  judged  by  the 
court  to  which  he  is  legally  amenable;  but  he  may 
exercise  the  right  of  clemency,  after  hearing  his 
Council,  and  relieve  from  capital  sentences,  dimin- 
ish punishments,  and  restore  forfeited  honour  or 
confiscated  goods,  but  the  condemned  may  refuse 


Government  and  Political  Life    43 

such  clemency  and  have  the  choice  of  accepting 
the  pardon  or  undergoing  the  punishment. 

A  greater  measure  of  initiative  and  action  is  in 
general  allowed  the  sovereign  than  in  most  con- 
stitutional countries.  It  has  been  the  happy  lot 
of  the  Swedish  nation  that  this  initiative  and  this 
action  have  been  used,  under  the  present  dynasty, 
with  rare  ability  and  tact,  by  a  succession  of  ex- 
ceptionally clever  princes.  The  present  ruler  is  a 
striking  example  of  this.  Endowed  with  quite 
superior  intellectual  gifts,  he  has  treated  the  diffi- 
cult questions  which  he  has  been  called  upon  to 
solve  with  singular  penetration  of  judgment,  po- 
litical acumen,  and  practical  good  sense.  He  has, 
during  his  long  reign,  afforded  a  signal  example 
of  the  spirit  of  public  service  and  devotion  to  the 
common  good,  on  large  and  unselfish  grounds. 
Oscar  II.  is  not  only  a  poet  and  a  musician  of 
talent,  an  orator  of  great  power  and  resource,  and 
a  charming  causeur,  but  a  statesman  who  holds 
high  rank  among  the  leading  men  of  the  day. 
He  has  been  called  the  most  enlightened  sovereign 
in  Europe.  He  is  a  man  who  would  have  made 
his  mark  anywhere  and  risen  to  the  top  in  any 
career  he  might  have  embraced,  no  matter  in  what 
rank  he  had  been  born.  He  speaks  five  or  six 
languages  fluently,  and  his  speeches  are  models 
of  literary  elegance  and  elevation  of  thought.  His 
contributions  to  literature,  under  the  nom  de plume 
of  "Oscar  Frederic,"  are  of  no  mean  value.  A 
French  critic,  referring  to  an  anonymous  poem  of 


44  Swedish  Life 

his  youth — when  a  young  naval  officer — Reminis- 
cences of  the  Swedish  Fleet,  which  was  rewarded 
with  a  medal  by  the  Swedish  Academy,  styled  its 
author:  "Un  roi  par  le  talent  et  la  pensee.  Poete 
comme  ill  etait  marin,  il  a  chante  la  mer,  cette 
vaste  mer  qu'il  adore  et  dont  il  celebre  les  gran- 
deurs et  les  orages  en  lui  empruntant  sa  voix." 
Now,  in  his  green  old  age, — he  was  born  in  i82Q( 
— full  of  vigour  and  lively  interest  in  all  matters 
concerning  politics,  human  progress,  science,  and 
art,  he  is  a  sort  of  Nestor  among  European  sover- 
eigns and  is  often  chosen  by  statesmen  as  arbiter 
in  knotty  diplomatic  questions.  The  historian 
Geijer  has  said  that  the  history  of  Sweden  is  the 
history  of  her  kings.  Whatever  may  be  thought 
of  so  broad  a  generalisation,  there  is  no  doubt  that 
in  most  of  what  has  been  accomplished  in  Sweden 
during  the  last  thirty  years  towards  material  and 
intellectual  development,  the  present  Sovereign 
has  exercised  a  paramount  influence. 

The  only  modification  of  any  note  which  the 
constitution  of  1809  has  undergone  in  the  course 
of  ninety-five  years,  is  that  connected  with  the 
Parliamentary  Reform  of  1866.  The  old  Estates 
of  Sweden,  consisting  of  four  Houses,  — the  Nobles, 
the  Burghers,  the  Clergy,  and  the  Peasants, — were 
replaced  by  two  elective  chambers:  the  Upper 
House  or  First  Chamber,  consisting  of  150  mem- 
bers, elected  for  nine  years  by  the  County  Councils 
of  the  rural  districts  and  the  Town  Councils  of  the 
cities;  and  the  L,ower  House  or  Second  Chamber, 


Government  and  Political  Life    45 

consisting  of  230  members,  elected  for  three  years, 
by  the  people,  150  representing  the  rural  districts 
and  80  the  towns.  Members  of  the  First  Chamber, 
elected  by  the  County  or  Town  Councils,  that  is 
in  the  second  degree,  are  not  paid.  To  be  elected, 
they  must  be  over  thirty-five  years  of  age,  in  pos- 
session of  a  minimum  taxed  income  of  4000  crowns 
(,£222).  or  owners,  for  at  least  three  years  pre- 
viously, of  landed  property  of  a  minimum  value 
of  80,000  crowns  (^4444).  The  expense  of  living 
in  the  capital  four  months  of  the  year  is  hardly 
compatible  with  a  total  annual  income  of  only 
4000  crowns.  Members  of  the  Second  Chamber 
receive  a  compensation  of  1200  crowns  (,£66).  To 
be  elected  they  must  be  over  twenty- five  years  of 
age,  and  domiciled  and  electors  in  the  district  they 
are  called  upon  to  represent.  Election  to  the 
Second  Chamber  is  either  direct  or  indirect,  at 
the  choice  of  the  electorate.  In  districts  where, 
on  account  of  distance  or  other  reason,  the  pres- 
ence of  all  the  voters  at  the  poll  may  be  incon- 
venient, they  may  collectively  choose  a  certain 
number  of  electors  who  attend  at  the  poll  and  elect 
a  member.  At  present  181  districts  cast  their  votes 
direct  and  only  15  mediately,  by  chosen  electors. 

The  electorate  consists  of  every  Swedish  male 
citizen  of  twenty-one  years  of  age  who  is  the 
owner  of  landed  property  of  the  value  of  1000 
crowns  or  more,  or  who  rents  and  has  rented  for 
the  last  five  years  landed  property  of  a  minimum 
value  of  6000  crowns,  or  who  has  a  taxed  income 


46  Swedish  Life 

of  800  crowns  a  year.  It  is  a  high  franchise,  lim- 
iting the  right  of  vote  to  401,109  voters  for  the 
whole  kingdom  (1899),  being  7.92$  of  the  whole 
population  or  29.92$  of  the  men  having  reached 
the  age  of  twenty-one.  A  considerable  agitation 
has  been  going  on  for  the  last  few  years  in  favour 
of  an  extension  of  the  franchise.  Among  the 
working  classes  of  the  towns,  who  are  to  a  great 
extent  deprived  by  the  present  arrangement  of  the 
right  of  vote,  the  cry  of  universal  suffrage  has  been 
raised,  and  it  has  been  supported  by  imposing 
demonstrations,  such  as  workmen's  processions, 
all  over  the  country.  A  general  consensus  of 
opinion  seems,  indeed,  to  be  in  favour  of  the 
broadening  of  the  franchise;  though  the  step 
meets  with  opposition  on  the  part  of  the  landed 
interests,  and  in  others,  it  raises  a  fear  that  it 
may  pave  the  way  to  universal  suffrage  and  pure 
democracy.  In  1902,  a  Bill  lowering  the  voting 
qualification  to  a  nominal  value,  but  rendering 
the  suffrage  in  a.manner  progressive  by  providing 
that  married  men  and  fathers  of  families  should 
have  two  votes  was  laid  before  Parliament  by  the 
Government;  but  the  Bill  failed  to  satisfy  either 
of  the  contending  parties.  The  partisans  of  uni- 
versal suffrage  voted  it  not  sufficiently  progres- 
sive, while  the  Conservatives  feared  its  effects 
on  the  present  balance  of  power.  The  debates  on 
the  Bill  were  very  animated  in  both  Houses.  As 
an  expression  of  opinion  and  in  the  hope  of  in- 
fluencing the  debates  in  the  Riksdag,  the  Work- 


< 

Q 
en 


UJ 

I 


O 


LLl 

Q. 
O 


Government  and  Political  Life    47 

men's  Unions  organised,  with  the  consent  of  the 
police,  huge  processions  in  Stockholm.  Over 
thirty  thousand  workmen  and  sympathisers  with 
their  cause  marched  through  the  principal  streets, 
with  banners  flying  and  bands  playing,  without 
uttering  a  cry  or  giving  rise  to  the  least  tumult  or 
violence,  and  watched  with  a  certain  amusement, 
but  with  perfect  calm,  by  the  rest  of  the  popula- 
tion. A  general  strike,  to  last  three  days,  was 
also  decided  upon,  as  a  mode  of  intimidation,  but 
it  failed  to  attain  the  proportions  contemplated 
and  it  interrupted  supplies  in  town  to  but  a  limited 
degree,  although  it  stopped  most  of  the  general 
traffic.  The  Government  Bill  was  thrown  out, 
both  Houses  joining  in  an  address  to  the  Execu- 
tive, requesting  that  the  whole  question  of  elective 
reform  might  be  more  thoroughly  investigated 
and  a  new  Bill,  on  the  basis  of  a  general  but  pro- 
gressive suffrage,  presented  to  the  Chambers. 
The  Ministry  fell  in  consequence  of  this  vote,  and 
a  new  Ministry  was  formed  with  the  preparation 
of  a  new  Reform  Bill  as  its  special  programme.  A 
Government  Commission  was  appointed  to  work 
out  the  details,  and  a  fresh  Bill  has  been  presented 
to  Parliament  on  the  basis  of  proportional  elector- 
ates, which  will  treble  the  number  of  voters. 

The  Swedish  Parliament  meets  yearly  on  Janu- 
ary 15,  and  sits  till  May  15.  It  requires  no  royal 
summons  to  assemble,  but  assembles  in  its  own 
right,  on  the  day  appointed  by  the  constitution, 
and  dismisses  itself  in  the  same  way  when  the 


48  Swedish  Life 

legal  session  is  concluded.  [The  King  may  sum- 
mon the  Chambers  to  an  extraordinary  session, 
for  special  purposes,  but  then  no  other  matters 
can  be  legislated  upon  save  those  specified  in  the 
summons,  and  the  session  ends  as  soon  as  the 
vote  on  these  has  been  obtained.  The  King  ap- 
points the  President  (Speaker)  and  Vice-Presidents 
of  both  Chambers,  and  he  opens  Parliament  in 
person  or  by  proxy.  In  the  former  case,  how- 
ever, he  does  not,  as  in  most  other  parliamentary 
countries,  repair  to  the  Chambers,  but  both  Houses 
come  to  him,  according  to  ancient  usage,  assem- 
bling in  a  special  hall  in  the  palace,  where  the 
King  addresses  them.  This  is  a  most  curious 
ceremony,  almost  mediaeval  in  its  antiquated  forms 
and  indicative  of  Swedish  conservatism  and  love 
of  traditional  pomp  and  ceremony.  After  assist- 
ing at  a  special  service  in  the  cathedral,  where 
prayers  are  offered  and  a  sermon  is  preached  with 
reference  to  their  approaching  labours,  the  mem- 
bers of  both  Houses  march  into  this  immense  hall, 
headed  by  their  Speakers,  and  take  their  seats,  the 
first  Chamber  to  the  right,  the  Second  Chamber  to 
the  left,  of  the  throne.  The  throne,  a  massive 
high  seat  in  solid  silver,  dating  from  the  time  of 
Queen  Christina  to  whom  it  was  presented  by  her 
ardent  admirer  and  Marshal  of  the  realm,  Count 
Magnus  Gabriel  de  la  Gardie,  is  placed  on  a  raised 
dais,  and  on  either  side  of  it  are  seats  for  the 
Princes  and  members  of  the  royal  family.  The 
Queen  and  Princesses,  surrounded  by  the  mem- 


Government  and  Political  Life    49 

bers  of  their  Court,  are  seated  in  the  gallery  to 
the  left,  opposite  the  foreign  representatives  and 
ladies  of  the  diplomatic  corps,  in  full  uniform  and 
Court  dresses,  in  the  gallery  to  the  right.  Some 
of  the  members  of  the  two  Houses  of  Parliament, 
like  military  men  and  public  functionaries,  are  in 
uniform,  some  are  in  plain  clothes,  some  in  priestly 
and  others  in  peasant's  garb.  All  sorts  and  con- 
ditions of  men  are  represented,  bishops  and  coun- 
try clergymen,  provincial  governors  and  landed 
noblemen,  freehold  peasants,  rural  schoolmasters, 
university  dons,  and  industrial  kings.  Heralded 
by  the  tones  of  a  solemn  march,  played  by  an  in- 
visible military  band,  there  advances  through  the 
suite  of  saloons  leading  to  the  royal  apartments  a 
gorgeous  procession.  First  come  military  guards 
in  the  original  quaint  garb  of  Charles  XII. 's  Bra- 
bants,  then  pages  in  the  elegant  Court  dress  of 
Gustavus  III.,  then  the  high  Court  functionaries 
and  gentlemen-in-waiting,  the  Master  of  the  Cere- 
monies, the  Court  Marshals  and  the  Marshal  of 
State,  mace  in  hand,  all  in  full  uniform  and  ablaze 
with  Orders  and  Stars;  they  are  followed  by  the 
members  of  the  Cabinet  and  heads  of  administra- 
tive departments  and,  finally,  by  the  Royal  Princes 
in  ermine  and  blue,  wearing  their  coronets.  Prince 
Eugene,  Duke  of  Nerike,  the  King's  youngest 
son,  comes  first,  his  bright  and  intellectual  face 
bearing  an  expression  of  unusual  solemnity.  He 
is  devoted  to  art,  a  landscape  painter  of  great 
talent,  and  a  prime  favourite  in  artistic  circles. 


50  Swedish  Life 

Then  comes  the  tall  and  wonderfully  handsome 
Prince  Carl,  Duke  of  Westergbtland,  the  cynosure 
of  all  eyes  in  the  ladies'  gallery.  He  is  a  general 
in  the  army,  Inspector-General  of  Cavalry,  a  sol- 
dier at  heart,  and  an  authority  on  all  military 
matters.  He  casts  a  side  glance,  as  he  marches 
in,  towards  the  Queen's  gallery,  where  sits  his 
young  and  pretty  wife,  the  granddaughter  of  the 
King  of  Denmark  and  niece  of  the  Queen  of  Eng- 
land, the  glance  awakening  a  beaming  smile  and 
a  cheerful  nod.  After  him  marches  Prince  Wil- 
liam, the  Crown  Prince's  second  son,  and,  next  to 
him,  the  eldest  Prince  Gustavus  Adolphus,  Duke 
of  Skane,  heir-apparent  to  the  throne.  He  is  an 
officer  in  the  Army;  his  brother,  a  cadet  in  the 
Naval  School,  will  occupy  the  same  position  in 
the  Navy.  Following  them  is  the  Crown  Prince 
himself,  a  fine  and  manly  figure  of  open  counte- 
nance and  stately  bearing,  whose  whole  appear- 
ance carries  the  impress  of  a  singularly  sincere, 
earnest,  and  sympathetic  character;  few  approach 
him  without  becoming  devoted  to  him.  And  now, 
the  march  played  by  the  invisible  band  ceases 
suddenly,  and  a  band  in  the  end  gallery  of  the  hall 
breaks  out  in  the  royal  anthem.  Alone,  separated 
from  all  the  rest,  and  closing  the  procession,  ad- 
vances the  commanding  figure  of  the  King,  in 
ermine  and  purple,  the  edge  of  his  flowing  mantle 
supported  by  two  chamberlains,  the  royal  crown 
sparkling  with  gems  on  his  head,  the  royal  sceptre 
in  his  hand.     Towering  a  whole  head  above  every 


Government  and  Political  Life    51 

one  in  the  room,  Oscar  II.  looks,  indeed,  in  stature 
and  dignity  of  deportment,  "every  inch  a  king." 
The  commanding  brow,  the  flashing  blue  eyes, 
the  intellectual  expression  on  his  fine-cut  features, 
show  the  master  mind  and  the  leader  of  men.  His 
kingship  is,  above  all,  that  of  character,  mind,  and 
noble  purpose. 

The  King  seats  himself  on  the  throne,  with  the 
Princes  grouped  on  either  side  of  him,  the  Court 
and  Government  functionaries  ranged  below  them, 
and  thence  addresses  the  Houses  of  Parliament. 
Tne  well-known  powers  of  eloquence  of  King 
Oscar  II.  are,  in  this  case,  not  put  to  the  test.  His 
"  Speech  from  the  Throne,"  as  a  State  document, 
has,  in  fact,  been  prepared  by  his  Ministers,  and  its 
stereotyped  terms  have  been  duly  discussed  and 
determined  in  Council.  The  King's  remarkably 
clear  and  sonorous  voice  emphasies  the  old-fash- 
ioned traditional  phrases,  beginning  with  "  Good 
Sirs  and  Swedish  Men,"  and  ending  with  grandi- 
loquent protestations  of  royal  good- will.  Such  ad- 
dresses have  a  family  resemblance  all  the  world 
over.  The  present  one  refers  briefly  to  current 
public  events  and  forthcoming  parliamentary 
labours,  and  ends  with  the  usual  assurances  as  to 
the  happy  relations  entertained  with  all  foreign 
Powers.  For  thirty  years,  the  Swedish  people 
have  heard  that  voice  address  them  from  the 
throne,  and  they  have  learned  to  love  it,  knowing 
how  much  it  has  done  for  their  welfare.  The 
true  sentiments  of  the  nation  were   voiced  by  a 


52  Swedish  Life 

leading  writer  who  said,  in  reference  to  the  cere- 
mony above  described :  ' '  Long  may  the  Swedish 
people  be  addressed  from  the  silver  throne  in  the 
royal  assembly  hall  by  that  commanding  figure 
with  the  white  hair,  the  fine  features,  and  the 
grand  sonorous  voice."  ' 

The  Presidents  of  the  two  Chambers  reply  in 
turn  to  the  King's  speech.  The  Prime  Minister 
reads  a  long  report  on  the  administration  of  public 
affairs  since  the  Chambers  last  met.  The  Minister 
of  Finance  hands  each  of  the  Speakers  a  copy  of 
the  Budget  estimates  for  the  next  year,  and  then 
the  ceremony  ends.  The  royal  procession  files 
out  in  the  same  order  it  came  in,  and  the  Cham- 
bers proceed  to  the  Houses  of  Parliament  to  com- 
mence the  work  of  the  Session  by  electing  their 
Committees.  There  are  five  Permanent  Commit- 
tees, on  which  devolve  nearly  the  whole  work  of 
the  Chambers,  viz.,  the  Constitutional  Committee, 
to  which  are  referred  all  matters  concerning  the 
fundamental  laws;  the  Committee  of  State,  for  ad- 
ministrative affairs;  the  Committee  of  Grants,  for 
handling  the  Budget;  the  Bank  Committee,  for 
matters  connected  with  the  State  Bank,  which  is 
administered  by  the  Riksdag;  and  the  Law  Com- 
mittee, for  all  legislative  measures.  Special  Com- 
mittees are  elected  in  case  of  need.  All  bills  must 
be  voted  by  both  Chambers.  A  contrary  vote  of 
one  is  an  absolute  veto  on  the  decision  of  the 

1  Redogorelse  for  Konung  Oscar  II.' 's  25  Ariga  Reger- 
ingsjubileum,  F.  U.  Wrangel. 


Government  and  Political  Life    53 

other,  unless  a  compromise  can  be  arrived  at  in 
committee  which  commands  the  approbation  of 
both.  In  regard  to  matters  concerning  the  Budget 
and  taxation,  however,  should  the  vote  of  the  two 
Chambers  be  divergent,  a  final  vote  is  taken  in 
common,  both  Houses  voting  conjointly,  and  the 
joint  majority  carrying  it.  As  the  number  of 
members  in  the  Second  Chamber  is  nearly  double 
that  of  the  members  of  the  First,  this  arrangement 
practically  places  the  final  decision  in  all  budgetary 
matters  in  the  power  of  the  Lower  House.  Any 
decision  entailing  a  change  of  the  fundamental 
law  only  becomes  operative  after  it  has  been  con- 
firmed by  a  vote  of  "yes"  or  "no,"  without  further 
discussion,  in  a  new  Legislature,  that  is,  after  new 
elections  to  the  Second  Chamber.  The  Riksdag 
not  only  votes  the  Budget  but  controls  its  applica- 
tion through  its  auditors  (Statsrevisorer),  who 
yearly  audit  the  accounts  of  every  administrative 
department.  The  Riksdag  also  administers, 
through  delegates  chosen  among  its  members, 
the  State  Bank,  and  the  Public  Debt,  and  regu- 
lates the  administration  of  the  State  domains  and 
the  Mint.  By  a  special  officer,  called  the  Dele- 
gate of  Justice  (yusiilie  Ombudsman},  it  also  con- 
trols the  Law  Courts  and  takes  cognisance  of  cases 
of  miscarriage  of  justice  or  complaints  of  abuse  of 
authority  on  the  part  of  public  servants.  The 
rights  of  the  citizen  against  abuse  of  power  on  the 
part  of  the  authorities  are  thus  specially  guarded. 
The  acts  of  any  public  officer  can  be  'arraigned 


54  Swedish  Life 

before  this  judicial  parliamentary  authority.  In 
addition  to  this,  all  official  documents,  public 
registers,  correspondence,  and  minutes  are  legally 
open  to  the  public,  and  may  be  consulted  or  ap- 
pealed to  by  any  citizen  who  claims  the  right  to 
do  so.  The  sole  exception  to  this  rule  allowed  by 
the  constitution  applies  to  the  minutes  of  the 
Council  of  State  and  to  military  and  diplomatic 
correspondence. 

The  Ministers  who,  as  I  have  said,  are  ap- 
pointed by  the  King,  are  answerable  to  the  Riks- 
dag for  the  "advice  "  given  to  the  sovereign,  and 
their  opinion,  in  regard  to  each  decision  adopted 
by  him,  must  be  entered  in  the  minutes  of  the 
Council.  They  may  be  arraigned  before  Parlia- 
ment and  judged  for  "unconstitutional  advice," 
or  the  Riksdag  can  address  the  King,  asking 
that  a  Minister  who  does  not  enjoy  its  confidence 
may,  in  the  public  interest,  be  dismissed  from  his 
Council.  In  form,  Ministerial  responsibility  dif- 
fers thus  materially  from  that  obtaining  in  other 
parliamentary  countries,  though  in  practice  the 
result  is  very  much  the  same,  the  King  choosing 
as  his  Ministers  men  who  possess  the  trust  and 
command  the  votes  of  the  Chambers.  The  legal 
formality  acts  as  a  necessary  restraining  power 
against  hurried  and  captious  votes.  It  obviates 
the  excesses  of  parliamentarism,  the  dangers  of 
a  feeble  Executive  and  of  Ministerial  instability, 
while  it  affords  sufficient  guarantees  against  auto- 
cratic abuses.     No  judge  or  public  servant  can  be 


Government  and  Political  Life    55 

deprived  of  his  office  without  a  judgment  agaiust 
him  pronounced  by  a  law  court,  with  the  sole  ex- 
ception of  military  commanders  and  diplomatic 
servants,  who  may  be  removed  from  their  posts  at 
the  King's  pleasure  for  State  reasons. 

The  Swedish  Cabinet  consists  of  eleven  members 
or  State  Councillors,  of  whom  one  is  "States 
Minister  ' '  or  Premier,  and  eight  are  heads  of  De- 
partments. These  are  the  Departments  of  Justice, 
Foreign  Affairs,  War,  Navy,  Home  Affairs, 
Finance,  Ecclesiastical  Affairs,  and  Agriculture. 
They  receive  a  salary  of  17,000  crowns  (.£944), 
except  the  "  States  Minister,"  who  receives  18,500 
crowns  (^1061  2S.  6d.),  and  the  Minister  of  For- 
eign Affairs,  who,  on  account  of  his  obligations 
in  entertaining,  is  allowed  24,000  crowns  (^1333) 
and  a  house. 

Taking  the  sum  total  of  public  expenditure, 
viz.,  156  million  crowns,  government  costs  30.6 
crowns  per  head  of  the  inhabitants;  taking  the 
sum  total  oi  taxation,  108,400,000  crowns,  or  21.25 
crowns  per  head,  is  what  the  Swede  in  reality  pays 
for  his  government;  adding  to  this  16.40  crowns 
per  head,  which  constitutes  the  sum  total  of  mu- 
nicipal taxes,  such  as  church  and  school  rates, 
he  pays  a  total  of  37.65  crowns  {£2  is.  8d.)  a  head 
to  be  governed  and  govern  himself,  to  provide 
himself  with  schools,  church,  hospitals,  poor 
houses,  police,  fire  brigade,  general  administra- 
tion, national  defence,  and  representation  abroad. 
National  defence  is  the  largest  item  in  his  expendi- 


56  Swedish  Life 

ture,  costing  him  46  million  crowns  for  the  Army 
and  21  million  crowns  for  the  Navy,  or  13.40 
crowns  (14s.  nd.)  per  head,  besides  eight  months 
to  one  year's  drill  in  the  Army  or  Navy  for  every 
young  man  of  twenty-one  years.  The  national 
debt,  which  amounts  to  337^  million  crowns 
(^18,750,000),  costs  him  nearly  12  million  crowns 
a  year  in  interest  and  sinking  fund,  but  this  sum 
is  in  part  counterbalanced  by  the  revenue  of  the 
State  railways,  for  the  construction  of  which  the 
debt  was  contracted.  Education  costs  him  in 
Government  and  municipal  schools  another  29^ 
million  crowns,  or  65.  ^yid.  per  head,  at  which 
price  he  has  free  grammar  schools,  high  schools, 
universities,  and  technical  colleges,  where  his 
sons  and  daughters  receive  their  education  with- 
out cost.  The  income  tax  has  hitherto  been  cal- 
culated on  the  following  basis :  Incomes  up  to  500 
crowns,  considered  as  the  minimum  necessary  for 
existence,  are  free  of  all  taxation;  of  incomes  of 
from  500  to  1200  crowns,  450  crowns  are  exempted 
from  taxation,  and  of  incomes  of  from  1200  to  1800 
crowns,  300  crowns  are  exempted;  but  everything 
above  that  pays  \<f0  income  tax,  and,  in  cases  of 
necessity,  an  additional  tax,  specially  voted  as 
circumstances  may  require.  Since  the  Army  Re- 
form Bill  was  passed  ten  years  ago,  in  view  of  the 
increased  expenses  it  entailed  for  national  defence, 
this  additional  tax  has  been  assessed  at  another 
i#,  forming  a  total  income  tax  of  2%.  The  prop- 
erty tax  is  calculated  at  the  rate  of  6  ore  per  100 


Government  and  Political  Life     57 

crowns  of  the  value  of  landed  property  (o.6#),  and 
5  ore  per  ioo  crowns  value  of  town  property. 

Recently  a  Bill  was  passed  which  modified  the 
basis  of  direct  taxation,  making  the  additional  in- 
come tax — over  and  above  the  i$  fixed  tax — pro- 
gressive. Incomes  under  iooo  crowns  now  pay 
no  tax.     On  incomes  of — 

From  1,000  to  2,000  crowns,  800  crowns  are  exempted, 
"      2,000   "   3,000        "        600        "        "  " 

"      3,000  "  4,000        "        400        "        "  " 

as  free  from  taxation.  On  incomes  of  from  4000 
to  6000  crowns,  \<f0  income  tax  is  paid,  in  addition 
to  the  fixed  tax.     Incomes  of — 

From    6,000  to  10,000  crowns  are  augmented  by     50$, 


"      10,000   "  15,000 

<< 

El 

<                      ( 

IOO#, 

"      15,000    "  20,000 

n 

u 

<                     < 

I50& 

"      20,000   "  30,000 

<« 

( 

(                      < 

200#, 

"     30,000   "  50,000 

l( 

I< 

tt                      ( 

250$, 

"      50,000   "  80,000 

<< 

[( 

[(                    ( 

3°°#> 

"      80,000  and  over 

(1 

( 

<                    < 

400$, 

and  pay  \<f0  additional  income  tax  on  the  sum  total 
produced  by  the  ratio  of  augmentation.  Thus, 
while  an  income  of  6000  crowns  pays  1$,  an  in- 
come of  20,000  crowns,  for  instance,  will  pay  1$ 
on  34,500  crowns,  which  is  nearly  1^2$,  an  income 
of  100,000  \<fo  on  345,500  crowns,  which  is  over 
3^$,  and  one  of  145,500  crowns  i</0  on  582,000 
crowns,  which  is  4$,  that  being  the  highest  rate. 
The  new  regulation  also  introduces  the  system  of 


58  Swedish  Life 

self- declaration,  in  lieu  of  the  assessment  made  by 
special  assessment  committees  as  heretofore. 

Properly  speaking,  party  government  does  not 
exist  in  Sweden.  There  is  in  the  Swedish  Riksdag 
nothing  corresponding  to  his  Majesty's  Opposition 
in  England,  or  to  the  party  organisations,  repre- 
senting more  or  less  definite  political  principles, 
of  other  parliamentary  countries.  There  are  two 
conflicting  interests  which  may  be  roughly  defined 
as  town  and  country:  the  agricultural  as  opposed 
to  the  industrial  and  trade  interests.  A  few  years 
ago  the  conflict  assumed  a  more  concrete  and  acute 
form  on  the  lines  of  Protection  versus  Free  Trade. 
The  agricultural  party  wanted  high  duties  on 
breadstuff's  to  protect  them  from  foreign  compe- 
tition; the  manufacturers  dreaded  these  duties  as 
likely  to  increase  the  cost  of  labour,  and  many  a 
pitched  battle  was  fought  on  the  controversy.  All 
the  well-known  arguments  for  and  against  free 
trade  were  adduced  on  both  sides.  It  was  shown, 
on  the  one  hand,  that  all  foreign  countries,  from 
Russia  to  Spain,  were  closing  their  doors  against 
Swedish  products  by  high  tariffs;  while  the  oppo- 
site side  retorted  that  England,  Sweden's  best 
customer,  left  her  doors  wide  open  and  was  yet 
the  richest  country  in  the  world.  Passions  ran 
high;  the  debates  assumed  unprecedented  ani- 
mosity; but  finally  the  Protectionists  carried  the 
day,  by  offering  manufacturers  equal  protection 
against  foreign  competitors,  and  property  owners 
the  prospect  of  a  diminution  in  the  house  and  land 


Government  and  Political  Life     59 

tax  consequent  on  the  increase  in  public  revenue 
to  be  produced  by  high  custom  duties.  Protection 
was  adopted  all  along  the  line.  The  revenue,  it 
is  true,  increased  by  about  twenty  million  crowns 
a  year,  and  native  industries  were  fostered  into  an 
unprecedented  development;  but,  on  the  other 
hand,  labour  troubles  were  created,  Socialism  and 
Trade  Unions  came  into  existence;  Stockholm 
and  other  large  towns  sent  Labour  members  to 
the  Riksdag;  and  the  undisputed  sway  of  the  land- 
owners was  threatened. 

Then  came  the  Army  Reform  Bill.  Experts 
had  long  been  proclaiming  that  the  national  de- 
fence was  in  a  perilous  condition,  that  the  old- 
fashioned  territorial  troops  were  insufficient  and 
inadequate  to  defend  the  country,  to  maintain  its 
neutrality,  and  prevent  the  violation  of  its  terri- 
tory by  foreign  belligerents  in  case  of  a  European 
war.  A  nation  in  arms,  it  was  argued,  was  all 
very  well,  but  a  nation  untrained  to  modern  war- 
fare would  be  nothing  but  what  Napoleon  called 
de  la  chair  a.  canon,  unable  to  meet  in  battle  the 
highly  trained  troops  of  modern  armies.  They 
demanded,  therefore,  that  the  youth  of  the  nation 
should  be  sent  into  the  Army  to  be  trained,  to  be 
taught  to  ride,  to  shoot,  and  to  skirmish.  The 
theory  was  readily  accepted  on  patriotic  grounds; 
but  the  length  of  this  period  of  training  became 
the  bone  of  contention.  Youth  under  compulsory 
training  in  the  Army  meant  youth  taken  away 
from  the  schools  and  universities,  from  the  trades 


60  Swedish  Life 

and  the  fields.  For  how  long  could  they  in  all 
possibility  be  dispensed  with  ?  Here  opinions 
and  interests  differed,  but  all  agreed  in  wishing  to 
make  the  training  period  as  short  as  possible.  A 
first  Bill  passed  by  the  Riksdag,  in  an  extraordi- 
nary session  summoned  for  the  purpose  in  1892, 
granted  ninety  days'  training,  divided  into  two 
periods  of  sixty-eight  and  twenty-two  days  re- 
spectively, during  two  following  summers,  for  all 
young  men  who  had  attained  the  age  of  twenty- 
one,  after  which  they  would  form  a  reserve  to  be 
called  out  when  needed  until  the  age  of  forty,  and 
a  second  reserve  liable  until  the  age  of  sixty.  A  few 
years'  trial  proved  the  truth  of  what  experts  had 
predicted,  the  inadequacy  of  so  short  a  period 
of  military  training.  Hence  the  Government 
brought  forward  a  supplementary  Bill  in  1901, 
demanding  a  minimum  of  twelve  months  with  the 
colours  and  an  addition  to  the  income  tax  to  meet 
the  expense  of  this  considerable  increase  in  the 
numbers  of  the  standing  army.  The  demand  was 
granted  by  Parliament  with  certain  amendments, 
which,  while  allowing  twelve  months'  training  in 
the  cavalry  and  artillery,  reduced  it  to  eight 
months  in  the  infantry,  and  coupled  the  grant 
with  a  request  that  the  Government  would  study 
and  propose  some  such  reform  of  the  income  tax 
as  would  make  it  progressive.  Two  side  issues 
had,  indeed,  been  raised  during  the  debates  on 
this  second  Army  Bill — one  in  favour  of  pro- 
gressive taxation,  on  the  ground  that  if  youth 


Government  and  Political  Life    61 

was  to  be  called  upon  to  train  to  defend  the 
country,  wealth  should  contribute  to  the  expense 
in  proportion  to  the  interest  it  had  at  stake,  the 
other  in  support  of  an  extension  of  the  franchise 
on  the  plea  that  if  the  poor  were  deprived  of  a  vote 
because  they  paid  no  taxes,  they  could  no  longer 
be  so  now  that  they  took  their  share  in  the  na- 
tional defence.  Out  of  these  two  pleas  grew  two 
great  legislative  proposals  of  reform,  the  one  a 
progressive  income  tax  and  the  other  the  exten- 
sion of  the  franchise;  the  first  of  which  has  al- 
ready been  adopted,  and  the  other  is  embodied  in 
the  Reform  Bill  now  before  Parliament.  In  both, 
the  Liberal  and  Democratic  party  scored  a  decided 
victory,  which  may  lead  to  far-reaching  results 
when  the  new  Franchise  Bill  trebles  the  number 
of  electors  and  gives  the  workmen  of  the  towns 
and  the  industrial  classes  in  general  a  larger  share 
in  the  election  to  the  Chambers.  The  shrewd 
and  conservative  peasant  and  landowner  who  have 
hitherto,  more  or  less,  had  their  own  way,  may 
then  find  themselves  confronted  by  forces  of  a  very 
different  tendency. 


CHAPTER  III 


THE   CAPITAL 


BROAD  streets  and  airy  squares,  uniformly 
paved  with  small  square  flagstones,  green 
parks  and  planted  areas  opening  bright  gaps  in 
the  long  vistas  of  houses,  churches,  and  monu- 
ments, wide  sheets  of  water,  shining  and  blue, 
intersecting  the  town  in  all  directions,  bordered 
with  elegant  quays  crowded  with  shipping,  and 
spanned  by  bridges  teeming  with  traffic, — such  is 
the  general  aspect  of  Stockholm. 

The  town  is  built  on  the  banks  of  the  Malar 
and  the  shores  of  the  Baltic  estuary,  into  which 
the  lake  empties  its  waters.  A  number  of  small 
islands,  unsubmerged  by  the  rushing  waters  of  the 
lake  into  the  sea,  at  the  junction  of  the  two  great 
waterways,  were  its  original  site  plot,  and  still 
form  its  centre.  The  Malar  was  the  stronghold 
of  the  ancient  Viking  warriors  of  Svea .  This  nar- 
row passage  was  their  way  out  to  the  sea,  when 
they  went  on  their  roving  expeditions  abroad;  the 
way  also  through  which  their  enemies  entered  the 
lake  to  attack  them  in  their  homesteads.  To  de- 
fend this  stronghold  they  built  a  fortress  on  the 

62 


The  Capital  63 

central  island  which  commands  its  entrance.  That 
was  the  foundation  of  Stockholm,  dating  from 
some  time  in  the  eleventh  century.  Round  this 
fortress  rose  fishermen's  huts  and  Viking  habita- 
tions; then  came  shipping  wharves  and  merchants, 
warehouses.  The  fortress  became  a  palace,  in 
which  resided  Svea's  kings.  The  letters  of  the 
Chieftain  Birger  Yarl  and  his  son,  King  Walde- 
mar,  dated  from  Stockholm  in  1252,  are  the  first 
written  records  of  the  existence  of  the  town.  Yet 
even  then  it  was  beginning  to  be  considered  the 
seat  of  government,  rivalling  Upsala,  where  the 
now  triumphant  Christian  Church  had  established 
its  sway,  having  supplanted  the  famous  temple  of 
Odin.  Soon  Stockholm  outgrew  it  in  commercial 
importance  and  obtained  letters  patent,  giving  it 
the  monopoly  of  trade.  During  the  union  with 
Denmark,  throughout  the  fifteenth  century,  it  was 
the  residence  of  the  Swedish  administrators,  who 
maintained  these  privileges  and  made  of  it  the 
capital  of  the  kingdom.  At  the  beginning  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  it  was  inhabited  by  1173 
burgher  families  who  paid  taxes,  of  whom  most 
lived  in  "the  city,"  but  seventeen  dwelt  on  the 
"northern  mainland,"  and  twenty-nine  in  "the 
South."  The  growing  town  was  already  over- 
lapping its  precincts  on  the  island  in  the  Malar 
stream .  It  became  the  centre  of  the  revolt  against 
Christian  II.  and  the  union  with  Denmark,  and 
was  punished  by  a  siege  and  fearful  massacres. 
When  Gustavus  Vasa  entered  the  town  at  the 


64  Swedish  Life 

head  of  his  trusty  Dalecarlians,  on  Midsummer's 
Day,  1523,  after  the  proclamation  of  independence, 
he  found  it  in  ruins,  only  308  families  being  left. 
"  You  all  know,  dear  friends,"  he  said  in  his  pro- 
clamation to  the  Swedes  on  that  day,  "how  the 
tyrannous  and  unchristian  King  Christian  has 
treated  the  city  of  Stockholm  and  its  unfortunate 
burghers,  who  were  all  honest  Swedes  of  good 
faith;  how  he  had  them  beheaded,  and  carried 
off  their  goods  and  chattels,  and  has  so  unmerci- 
fully destroyed  this  city  that  every  other  house  in 
it  is  deserted."  ' 

To  remedy  the  evil  and  repeople  the  town,  Gus- 
tavus  Vasa  ordered  that  ten  burghers  out  of  every 
other  town  in  the  kingdom  should  come  and  settle 
in  the  capital,  and  be  replaced  by  ten  peasants 
from  the  country,  and  declared  that  those  who  re- 
fused to  obey  the  summons  would  be  fined  forty 
dollars.  The  repopulation  does  not  seem  to  have 
been  very  rapid,  for  more  than  a  century  later,  in 
1635,  the  inhabitants  only  numbered  16,000.  In 
1800,  the  population  was  still  only  72,000,  and  in 
1850,  not  more  than  93,000.  But  from  that  time 
forward,  it  has  increased  with  giant  strides,  until 
it  reached  303,000  at  the  end  of  1900. 

The  natural  increase  of  the  population  has  been 
aided  by  the  modern  tendency  of  the  rural  popula- 
tion to  migrate  to  the  towns.  The  extent  of  this 
migration  may  be  judged  from  the  fact  that  while 
in  1805  the  towns  contained  9.62$  of  the  total  popu- 

1  Stockholm  (1897),  E.  W.  Dahlgren,  vol.  i.,  p.  89. 


The  Capital  65 

lation  of  Sweden,  the}'  contained  in  1820,  9.82$; 
in  1840,  9.67$;  in  i860,  11.26$;  in  1880,  15.12$; 
in  1S90,  18.80$;  in  1900,  21.49$.  The  greatest 
share  in  this  increase  must  be  attributed  to  Stock- 
holm (5.15$  in  1890,  and  5.84$  in  1900)  though  a 
slight  reaction  in  this  respect  seems  now  to  be 
taking  place. 

Stockholm,  with  its  303,000  inhabitants,  covers 
an  area  of  8952  acres,  of  which  7680  are  land  and 
1272  are  water — that  is,  the  inlets  or  natural  water- 
ways which  intersect  the  town  in  all  directions, 
joined  by  bridges  and  sluices.  It  is  this  feature  that 
gives  the  town  its  peculiar  character.  Stretches 
of  blue  water  meet  the  eye  everywhere.  There 
seem  to  be  more  quays  and  sea-walks  than  streets, 
and  there  is  hardly  a  street  which,  if  you  follow 
it  long  enough,  will  not  lead  you  to  a  quay  some- 
where. Half  the  houses  in  the  town  command  a 
view  of  the  water,  and  little  steamers,  darting 
across  the  waterways,  are  as  much  in  use  for  street 
traffic  as  the  trams,  although  these  run  nimbly 
along  the  quays  and  docks  and  over  the  bridges, 
and  circulate  through  the  town  in  all  directions. 

In  winter,  these  waterways  are  frozen  and  can 
be  crossed  on  foot.  They  offer  splendid  skating 
areas,  and  in  many  places,  afford  a  short  cut  from 
one  quay  to  another.  The  winter  aspect  of  the 
town,  when  the  streets  and  quays  are  white  with 
hard-frozen  snow,  the  trees  heavy  with  frost  and 
glittering  icicles,  and  the  stretches  of  water  have 
become  great  sheets  of  solid  ice,  is  very  striking. 


66  Swedish  Life 

In  its  summer  aspect,  what  strikes  one  most  in 
the  town,  next  to  the  shining  expanses  of  water 
visible  at  every  turn,  is  the  large  amount  of  verdure 
interspersed  among  the  buildings.  Not  only  is 
the  forest  within  a  stone's  throw  of  the  last  houses 
on  the  outskirts,  forming  a  dark  background  to 
the  city,  running  down  to  the  banks  of  the  Malar 
and  the  shores  of  the  islets  in  the  estuary,  but,  in 
the  midst  of  the  town,  parks  and  planted  spaces 
are  met  with  everywhere.  Over  2500  acres  of  the 
area  covered  by  the  town  consist  of  parks  and 
gardens,  516  acres  of  streets  and  squares,  and  2800 
acres  are  built  over.  Trees  and  flowers  are  the 
Stockholmer's  delight,  and  the  Town  Council 
never  loses  an  opportunity  of  adding  to  the  planted 
spaces,  in  which  it  displays  all  the  riches  of  the 
municipal  nursery  gardens.  No  wonder  the  tax- 
payer takes  a  pride  in  his  town,  for  flowers  are  his 
passion,  shared  by  high  and  low  alike.  There 
are  more  flowershops  in  Stockholm  than  in  any 
other  town  in  proportion  to  its  inhabitants,  and 
the  flower  trade  is  the  most  thriving  of  all.  Swed- 
ish ladies  have  two  birthdays,  or  rather  two  fete 
days — a  name  day  and  a  birthday — to  afford  their 
friends  a  double  opportunity  of  offering  them 
flowers,  and  their  friends  never  fail  to  avail  them- 
selves of  it.  In  the  poorest  window,  you  will  see 
pots  of  flowers  carefully  tended.  The  servant 
girl,  when  she  has  a  shilling  to  spend,  will  buy  a 
flower  to  take  home,  and  the  schoolgirl  prefers 
one  as  a  present  to  a  ribbon  or  a  trinket.     The 


The  Capital  67 

value  set  on  flowers  seems  to  be  in  direct  ratio  to 
the  pains  required  in  raising  them,  or  the  diffi- 
culty in  obtaining  them  from  more  richly  endowed 
regions. 

On  the  central  island  where  the  Malar  joins  the 
sea,  sending  out  a  volume  of  water  at  the  rate  of 
188  cubic  metres  a  second,  standing  on  a  height 
in  the  very  middle  of  the  town  and  meeting  the 
eye  from  all  parts  of  it,  rises  the  King's  Palace,  a 
master  work  of  Tessin  the  younger,  in  the  Italian 
Renaissance  style.  It  occupies  the  site  of  the 
Viking  fortress,  round  which  Stockholm  grew  up, 
and  of  Birger  Yarl's  and  Valdemar's  Palace, — 
"Three  Crowns,"  so  called  from  the  emblems  of 
the  royal  escutcheon  which  adorned  the  principal 
entrance, — in  which  all  the  great  kings  of  Sweden 
resided  until  it  was  destroyed  by  fire  in  1697.  It 
was  already  six  centuries  old  when  Charles  XI. 
decided  to  have  it  restored  or  rebuilt  in  1692.  He 
entrusted  Tessin  with  the  work;  and  Tessin  trav- 
elled to  Rome  to  seek  inspiration  in  the  Italian  art 
of  the  Renaissance,  then  to  Paris  and  London  to 
see  what  others  thought  of  it.  He  had  been  in 
Italy  in  his  youth  and  studied  under  Bernini  and 
Fontana.  He  now  renewed  his  studies,  with  this 
special  object  in  view,  and  worked  out  the  plans 
for  the  construction  of  the  new  Palace  in  Stock- 
holm. These  he  showed  to  the  King  at  Versailles, 
and  I^ouis  XIV.  ordered  his  ambassador  in  Sweden 
to  convey  his  congratulations  to  Charles  XI.  "  on 
this  beautiful  edifice  he  was  proposing  to  erect." 


68  Swedish  Life 

Tessin  returned  to  Sweden,  and  had  commenced 
carrying  his  plan  into  effect,  when  the  King  died. 
His  scaffoldings  encumbered  the  Palace  in  which 
Charles  XI.  was  laid  out  in  State,  and  Tessin's 
work  was  suspended  while  he  was  drawing  up 
a  plan  for  the  ceremonial  of  the  King's  burial, 
and  regulating  the  order  of  the  funeral  proces- 
sion. But  ere  this  was  ready,  a  fire  broke  out,  and 
the  whole  palace  was  destroyed  in  a  few  hours. 
The  King's  body  was  savedand  conveyed  into  the 
Court  stables,  where  had  also  taken  refuge  the 
future  King,  Charles  XII.,  a  boy  of  fifteen,  with 
his  two  sisters  and  their  grandmother,  the  am- 
bitious and  domineering  Dowager  Queen  Hed- 
wig  Kleonora,  the  wife,  mother,  and  grandmother 
of  three  King  Charleses,  who  for  once  lost  her 
presence  of  mind  and  her  haughty  demeanour. 
A  picture  by  Hockert  in  the  National  Museum 
vividly  reproduces  the  scene;  the  scared  expres- 
sion on  the  old  Queen's  face  contrasting  with  the 
calm  of  the  boy-king  supporting  his  grandmother 
in  her  flight  down  the  Palace  stairs,  with  the 
flames  raging  behind  them,  and  the  attitude  of 
the  two  princesses,  one  awed  by  the  danger  of  the 
situation,  the  other,  a  mere  child,  rather  amused 
by  its  novelty,  while  the  courtiers  are  hurriedly 
carrying  down  the  bier  containing  the  body  of  the 
King. 

This  accident  gave  Tessin  tabula  rasa  in  his 
work  of  reconstruction.  He  recast  his  plans  and 
enlarged  them,  and  set  to  work  with  renewed 


The  Capital  69 

ardour.  But  the  wars  of  Charles  XII.  soon  ex- 
hausted the  Treasury  of  money  and  the  country 
of  ..men.  For  thirty  years,  the  master-builder  pur- 
sued his  work  under  overwhelming  difficulties. 
He  employed  the  prisoners  of  war  sent  home  by 
his  master  from  Poland,  but  they  revolted  and 
threatened  to  set  fire  to  the  building.  He  sent 
out  press-gangs  to  recruit  workmen  among  the 
halt  and  the  maimed,  whom  the  war  had  left  be- 
hind; but  even  they  would  not  work  without  pay. 
Tessin  died  in  1728  without  having  finished  his 
task,  and  it  was  only  in  1754,  more  than  half  a 
century  after  its  commencement,  that  the  Palace 
was  completed.  It  was,  however,  left  to  Oscar 
II.  to  carry  out  Tessin' s  plans  in  all  their  details, 
especially  as  regards  the  ornamentation  of  the  in- 
terior. The  Palace  is  now  a  perfect  monument  of 
Tessinian  art.  Its  capacity  may  be  judged  from 
the  fact  that  at  the  King's  Jubilee  in  1897,  all  his 
guests,  including  more  than  twenty  princes  and 
half  as  many  princesses,  belonging  to  all  the 
thrones  of  Europe,  were  lodged  there  with  their 
numerous  suites. 

The  State  apartments  in  the  Palace,  the  im- 
mense ball-room,  called  the  White  Sea  (Hvita- 
hafvet),  the  salons,  and  the  reception-rooms  are 
on  the  second  floor  to  the  front,  overlooking  the 
wide  stretch  of  the  Malar  and  the  harbour.  In 
the  south  wing  are  the  State  Hall,  used  for  the 
ceremony  of  the  opening  of  Parliament,  which  has 
already  been  described,  and  the  Royal  Chapel. 


70  Swedish  Life 

The  King  and  Queen  occupy  the  first  floor  in  the 
west  wing,  and  the  Crown  Prince  and  his  Consort, 
Princess  Victoria  of  Baden,  and  their  family,  the 
three  Princes,  Gustavus  Adolphus,  William,  and 
Erik,  the  east  wing.  The  King's  second  son, 
Prince  Oscar,  who  renounced  all  his  rights  to  the 
throne  to  marry  the  lady  of  his  choice,  who  was 
not  of  royal  blood,  lives  in  town  as  •  a  private 
gentleman,  satisfied  with  the  rank  he  has  won  for 
himself  as  an  Admiral  in  the  Fleet;  while  Prince 
Carl  and  Prince  Eugene,  the  King's  younger 
sons,  live  in  the  Palace  on  Gustavus  Adolphus 
Square,  destined  for  younger  princes  of  the  royal 
house. 

Every  Tuesday,  between  ten  and  two  o'clock, 
the  King  gives  public  audience.  He  receives  all 
those  of  his  subjects  who  desire  to  approach  him, 
officers  and  public  functionaries  in  uniform,  pri- 
vate gentlemen  in  dress  clothes  and  white  tie. 
No  special  formality  is  required  to  be  admitted. 
A  list  is  laid  out  on  a  table  in  the  entrance  hall, 
and  the  audience  seeker  simply  writes  his  name 
on  this  list  and  awaits  his  turn.  The  aide-de- 
camp conducts  each  person,  following  the  order 
on  the  list,  to  the  Chamberlain-in-waiting,  who 
announces  his  name  to  the  King  and  ushers  him 
into  his  Majesty's  presence.  There,  alone  with 
his  Sovereign,  he  conveys  his  message,  tells  his 
tale,  or  makes  his  request.  The  King  has  a  kind 
word  for  all,  and  whether  the  request  be  granted 
or  not,  the  answer  is  given  in  as  frank  and  out- 


The  Capital  71 

spoken  a  manner  as  the  King  expects  the  appeal 
to  be  made.  For  there  is  nothing  he  prizes  more 
than  frankness,  sincerity,  and  freedom  of  speech, 
nothing  he  desires  more  than  perfect  trust  and 
open-heartedness  between  himself  and  his  people. 
His  patience  is  as  inexhaustible  as  his  kindness. 
For  hours  he  stands  there  listening  to  all  comers 
and  dismissing  each  with  a  smile  and  an  encour- 
aging word. 

A  Monumental  Bridge  over  the  Malar  Stream 
unites  the  quay  before  the  Palace  with  the  large 
square  opposite,  which  takes  its  name  from  the 
equestrian  statue  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  in  its 
midst.  The  statue,  by  Larcheveque,  and  the 
"Heir's  Palace,"  built  by  the  sister  of  Gustavus 
III.,  Sophia  Albertina,  and  left  by  her  to  the  royal 
family  to  be  used  by  younger  princes,  is  all  that 
remains  of  the  square  as  it  existed  in  the  Gus- 
tavian  era.  The  rest  has  been  modernised  beyond 
recognition.  Gustavus  Third's  elegant  and  orna- 
mental Opera  House  in  the  rococo  style  of  the 
time,  of  which  he  was  so  proud,  and  for  which 
he  himself  wrote  dramas,  and  in  which  he  met  his 
death  at  the  hands  of  the  assassin  Ankarstrom, 
has  given  way  to  a  modern  building,  less  graceful 
and  characteristic,  but  more  suited  to  the  increas- 
ing number  of  opera  frequenters,  in  a  town  which 
has  in  the  interval  grown  to  five  times  its  size  at 
that  time,  and  where  the  interest  in  music  and 
art  has  spread  to  broader  social  strata  with  the 
advance  of  education,     The  present  Opera  House, 


72  Swedish  Life 

which  has  excellent  acoustic  properties,  can  seat 
five  times  as  many  as  the  little  Gustavian  artistic 
bijou ;  and  on  opera  nights  there  is  rarely  a  seat 
vacant.  Here  Swedish  artists  sing  Italian,  French, 
and  German  operas  in  Swedish  and  also  original 
compositions  by  Swedish  composers,  such  as  L,ind- 
blad,  Berwald,  Hallstrom,  Hallen,  Stenhammar, 
and  Peterson- Berger,  of  more  or  less  advanced 
Wagnerian  tendencies. 

The  Swedes  are  generally  musical — of  this  their 
national  melodies  bear  witness — and  they  love  the 
opera.  They  have  produced  good  singers;  for  ex- 
ample, Jenny  L,ind,  Christina  Nilsson,  and  Sigrid 
Arnoldson,  to  mention  only  stars  of  first  magni- 
tude; but  they  will  equally  enjoy  a  foreign  singer 
and  make  much  of  him,  permitting  him  to  sing  in 
his  own  tongue,  when  all  the  other  performers  on 
the  stage  sing  in  Swedish.  The  case  has  even 
been  seen  of  an  opera  performed  in  three  different 
languages  at  one  and  the  same  time,  the  soprano, 
an  English  lady,  signing  in  French,  the  tenor  in 
German,  and  the  chorus  replying  to  both  in 
Swedish.  The  public,  familiar  with  the  opera, 
understood  all  three,  and  music  filled  up  the  dis- 
crepancies and  toned  down  the  jar  of  the  abrupt 
passage  from  one  tongue  to  another. 

Even  the  old  church  at  the  east  angle  of  the 
square,  St.  James's,  one  of  the  oldest  in  Stock- 
holm, has  been  modernised  and  beautified  within 
and  burnished  without.  But  nothing  can  alter  its 
massive  mediaeval  structure,  with  its  square  tower, 


The  Capital  73 

surmounted  by  a  cupola  rising  out  of  the  middle 
of  the  edifice  and  ending  in  a  turret,  whence  the 
watchman  used  to  sing  out  the  hours  at  night  in 
drawling  rhyme : 

"  The  hour  is  ten  ; 
God's  mighty  hand 
Preserve  ouf  town 
From  fire  and  brand  ; 
The  hour  is  ten." 

If,  from  his  vantage-ground,  the  watchman  saw 
the  signs  of  fire  breaking  out  in  the  town,  instead 
of  his  reassuring  sing-song  announcement  of  the 
hour  of  the  night,  he  sounded  a  loud  rattle  to 
warn  the  population.  The  clock  on  the  tower 
now  chimes  the  hours  instead,  and  is  responded 
to  by  five  or  six  others  in  the  neighbourhood; 
and,  as  to  fire,  there  is  an  electric  alarm  box  in 
every  street,  in  which,  by  touching  a  button,  you 
can  send  to  the  fire-brigade  a  signal  which  sets  a 
loud  bell  ringing,  marks  on  a  board  the  name  of 
the  street  whence  word  is  sent,  unshackles  auto- 
matically the  horses  harnessed  to  the  carts,  and 
the  men  being  thus  aroused,  in  less  than  two 
minutes  after  the  alarm  is  given,  the  fire  brigade, 
with  hydrants,  ladders,  and  life-saving  apparatus 
complete,  are  dashing  down  the  streets  as  fast  as 
the  horses  can  tear,  the  shrill  bugle  call  announc- 
ing their  arrival  and  clearing  the  way  before  them. 
The  Stockholmers  are  often  upbraided  by  lovers 
of  the  picturesque  for  their  passion  for  innovation 


74  Swedish  Life 

and  modernising;  they  are  accused  of  a  want  of 
reverence  for  the  antique,  for  the  monuments  of 
their  past  and  the  landmarks  of  their  history. 
There  may  be  some  truth  in  this.  A  new  inven- 
tion or  a  practical  discovery  appeals  powerfully  to 
the  Swede,  and  the  mania  for  Hausmannizing  and 
improving  out  of  existence  narrow  streets,  dark 
alleys,  and  crumbling  habitations,  at  the  cost  of 
the  picturesque  and  of  the  historically  interesting, 
is  in  the  very  nature  of  ediles  and  municipal  auto- 
crats. It  may  be  said,  however,  in  their  defence 
that,  from  the  point  of  view  of  comfort,  sanitation, 
and  practical  utility,  the  "improvements"  have 
their  raison  d'Stre,  so  that  the  alleged  Vandalism 
is  not  without  its  benefits  in  prosaic  everyday 
life.  The  sing-song  call  of  the  watchman  on  the 
tower  was,  no  doubt,  very  quaint,  but  the  alarm- 
bell  and  the  modern  fire-brigade  give  a  better 
chance  against  an  incipient  fire. 

A  bird's-eye  view  of  Stockholm — such  as  one 
gets,  for  instance,  from  the  heights  in  "the 
South,"  from  the  landing  of  one  of  the  town  lifts 
which,  for  a  halfpenny,  hoist  the  foot-passenger 
from  the  wharf  below  to  the  streets  above,  saving 
him  a  steep  ascent  by  the  main  artery — is  one  of 
the  finest  of  sights.  It  has  been  compared  in  turn 
to  the  Bosphorus,  the  Gulf  of  Naples,  and  the  Bay 
of  Rio  de  Janeiro;  but  comparisons  are  generally 
odious,  and  Stockholm  has  certainly  a  charm  of 
its  own.  What  strikes  one  as  an  abnormity,  if 
not  a  blot  on  the  beautiful  picture,  however,  is  the 


The  Capital  75 

great  iron  structure  in  its  midst,  a  sort  of  square 
Eiffel  tower  arrested  in  its  growth,  known  as  the 
telephone  tower.  It  is  the  central  receptacle  and 
general  upholder  of  the  thousand  wires  which 
radiate  from  it  like  gigantic  spiders'  webs  all  over 
the  town.  Of  late  years,  the  majority  of  these 
wires,  which  were  increasing  beyond  all  control, 
have  been  sunk  into  the  earth  instead  of  obscuring 
the  sky;  but  the  central  tower  still  stands  there  the 
supporter  of  what  remains  above  ground  of  the 
giant  network,  the  medium  and  passive  trans- 
mitter of  a  thousand  voices  speaking  to  each  other 
in  all  parts  of  the  town.  For  in  Sweden,  the  tele- 
phone has  become  a  commonplace,  and  there  is  not 
a  shop,  a  house,  or  an  office  in  Stockholm  with- 
out it,  for  its  low  cost,  £2  155  a  year,  places  it 
within  the  reach  of  every  household.  There  are 
in  Stockholm  30,000  telephone  subscribers,  a  num- 
ber which,  when  compared  with  London's  20,000, 
will  give  an  idea  of  its  popularity.  Berlin,  with  a 
population  six  times  as  large  as  Stockholm,  has 
37,000;  Paris,  with  its  2l/2  million  inhabitants, 
uses  only  18,000,  New  York  27,000,  and  Chicago 
16,000.  In  Stockholm,  where  there  are  automatic 
stations  in  every  square  at  the  disposal  of  the 
passer-by,  on  the  "  penny-in-the-slot "  system, 
the  telephone  has  revolutionised  the  habits  of  the 
people  and  has  so  entered  into  their  daily  and 
hourly  wants  that  it  is  impossible  to  imagine  how 
the  world  ever  got  on  without  it.  In  the  country, 
it  exists  on  almost  every  farm,  and  16.3  per  1000 


76  Swedish  Life 

of  the  total  population  of  the  country  subscribe 
to  it.  It  connects  the  capital,  over  200,000  kilo- 
metres of  wire,  with  more  than  2000  urban  and 
rural  stations  and  places  it  in  direct  communica- 
tion with  Norway  and  Denmark. 

But  ediles  and  Town  Council  autocrats  are  not 
the  only  people  who  show  a  certain  disregard 
for  the  picturesque  and  the  purely  aesthetic,  as 
opposed  to  the  practical  and  convenient.  In  mid- 
stream there,  between  the  square  and  the  monu- 
mental facade  of  the  Royal  Palace,  rise  the  new 
Houses  of  Parliament  and  the  State  Bank,  on  a 
little  islet  of  their  own.  There  is  no  doubt  that, 
from  the  artistic  point  of  view,  the  colossal  modern 
building  is  detrimental  to  the  palace,  impairing 
the  majesty  of  its  isolation,  interfering  with  the 
beauty  of  its  pure  outline  and  crushing  it,  in  a 
way,  by  its  very  vicinity.  Hence  a  loud  outcry 
was  raised  about  fifteen  years  ago,  when  the  plan 
was  first  mooted  of  building  the  new  Houses  of 
Parliament  on  that  spot,  but  the  Deputies  in  the 
Chambers  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  their  objurgations. 
Beyond  lie  the  Foreign  Office,  the  Town  Hall,  the 
House  of  Nobles  and  the  Riddarholm  Church, 
where  the  Kings  of  Sweden  are  buried.  Not  far 
away  rises  the  steeple  of  the  Cathedral,  where  the 
Kings  are  crowned,  and  where  Parliament  is 
yearly  prayed  for  and  preached  to  on  the  day  of 
its  opening;  and  further  on  stretches  out  the  old 
town,  the  centre  of  commerce,  with  its  narrow 
streets  and  old-fashioned  buildings,  its  shipping 


The  Capital  77 

and  wharves,  leading,  over  another  sea-arm,  to 
"  the  South,"  the  industrial  town  of  factories  and 
ship-building  yards,  the  poorer  quarters  of  cheap 
lodgings  and  overcrowded  dwellings,  the  abode 
of  small  folk,  petty  trades  and  day-labourers— in 
a  word,  the  East  End  of  Stockholm. 

The  elegant  and  fashionable  quarters  of  the 
West  End,  with  their  modern  palatial  mansions, 
five  stories  high,  their  stucco  facades  and  preten- 
tious architecture,  stretch  away  to  the  eastward, 
along  the  quays  of  "  Strandvagen  "  and  over  the 
heights,  as  far  as  the  royal  park  of  Djurgarden 
and  the  military  parade-ground,  which  have  for 
the  present  arrested  their  progress.  They  may 
not  be  able  to  do  so  long,  however,  considering 
the  rate  at  which  the  town  has  spread  out  thither. 
To  the  north  and  west,  again,  new  quarters  have 
sprung  up  within  the  last  few  years.  Vasastad 
and  Kungsholm  are  really  little  townlets  added  on 
to  the  city.  Yet,  in  spite  of  this  rapid  growth, 
the  increase  of  the  population  seems  to  outstrip  it. 
The  dearth  of  dwellings,  especially  of  small  tene- 
ments, continues  to  be  felt;  rents  also  continue  to 
rise  and  have  increased  thirty  per  cent,  in  the  last 
ten  years. 

In  Stockholm,  people  live  almost  exclusively  in 
fiats.  These  flats  are  of  all  sizes,  from  one  or  two 
rooms  and  a  kitchen  to  fifteen  or  twenty  of  more 
or  less  stately  dimensions.  The  average  flat  oc- 
cupied by  the  upper  and  middle  classes  consists  of 
seven  or  eight  rooms,  not  counting  the  entrance 


78  Swedish  Life 

hall  and  the  kitchen.  This  means  three  to  four 
master's  bedrooms,  two  sitting-rooms,  and  a 
dining-room,  and  one  or  two  servants'  rooms.  Men- 
servants  are  not  employed  or  are  quite  the  excep- 
tion. The  Swedish  female  servant  is,  in  general, 
very  reliable  and  accustomed  to  do  all  the  work. 
A  female  cook  and  two  maid-servants,  one  to  wait 
at  table  and  one  for  the  rooms,  make  up  the  usual 
establishment.  The  houses  pre  generally  built 
with  a  broad,  winding  marble  staircase  and  an 
electric  lift  in  the  middle,  and  a  flat  on  each  side 
of  every  landing,  the  same  disposition  and  the 
same  flats  being  reproduced  on  all  the  five  floors, 
including  the  ground  floor,  giving  thus  ten  flats 
per  house  on  the  front.  In  the  backyard  the 
building  is  divided  into  smaller  apartments  of  two 
and  three  rooms.  An  average-sized  house  may 
thus  contain  fifteen  or  twenty  apartments.  The 
medium  yearly  rent  is  356  crowns  (,£19  15s.)  per 
room  for  dwellings  and  997  crowns  (^55  ys.  lod.) 
per  room  for  shops  and  offices,  though  the  price 
varies  greatly,  of  course,  according  to  situation, 
from  500  crowns  a  room  for  dwellings  and  1450 
crowns  for  shops  in  the  fashionable  quarters  to  200 
crowns  and  833  crowns  respectively  in  the  South. 
It  is  among  the  poorer  classes,  and  in  respect  of 
small  tenements  of  one  or  two  rooms,  that  the 
dearth  of  dwellings  is  principally  felt.  The  yearly 
rent  of  one  room  and  a  kitchen  is  about  300 
crowns.  This  is  the  most  a  workman  can  pay  to 
lodge  himself  and  his  family,  and  often  indeed  it 


The  Capital  79 

is  beyond  his  means,  so  that  he  has  to  supplement 
his  earnings  by  taking  in  a  lodger.  Overcrowd- 
ing among  the  lower  classes  is  thus  lamentably 
common.  Cases  are  known  where  two  or  three 
families  crowd  into  the  same  room,  a  line  drawn 
in  chalk  over  the  floor  marking  the  domain  of 
each.  It  is  easy  to  imagine  the  pernicious  effects, 
both  moral  and  physical,  of  such  promiscuous  liv- 
ing. The  system  of  taking  in  a  "  night  lodger," 
or  hiring  out  a  "sleeping  place"  on  the  floor,  is 
also  common,  though  great  efforts  are  being  made 
both  by  the  authorities  and  private  charity  to  pre- 
vent it  alike  in  the  interests  of  sanitation  and 
morality.  It  was  proved  by  an  inquiry  instituted 
by  the  Town  Council  in  1896,  that  about  one 
fourth  of  Stockholm's  day-labourers  were  thus 
lodged  with  families,  and  that  they  paid  for  their 
"sleeping  place"  from  three  to  four  crowns  a 
month. 

To  remedy  the  evil  of  overcrowding,  both  the 
municipality  and  private  companies  have  built 
workmen's  houses  in  the  outskirts  of  the  town. 
These  contain  lodgings  of  two  rooms  and  a  kitchen 
for  families,  and  of  one  room  and  a  kitchen  or  one 
room  with  a  cooking-range  for  bachelors.  These 
tenements  are  let  at  from  10  to  20  crowns  a  month, 
and  yet  give  4  to  5$  on  the  capital  employed.  In  all, 
about  2000  such  small  tenements  have  been  built, 
not  counting  all  that  industrial  companies  have 
done  towards  the  housing  of  their  own  workmen. 
Nevertheless,   they  are  still  far  from   sufficient, 


80  Swedish  Life 

and  have  but  in  a  small  measure  diminished  the 
demand.  A  movement  in  favour  of  migration 
from  the  town  and  residence  in  the  country,  within 
easy  reach  of  it  by  rail,  has  also  been  set  on  foot, 
the  Government  granting  ground  on  easy  condi- 
tions of  purchase  at  places  where  the  foundation  of 
workmen's  communities  has  been  planned.  This 
has  led  to  the  formation  of  co-operative  societies 
among  workmen  for  the  purchase  of  ground  and 
the  building  of  cottages  on  the  mutual  system. 
These  attempts  have  mostly  turned  out  well,  but 
they  are  only  within  reach  of  the  higher-class 
workmen  in  receipt  of  secure  incomes,  and  are 
quite  beyond  the  means  of  the  ordinary  day- 
labourer  or  the  simple  artisan. 

Yet  the  general  crowding  of  the  population  is 
by  no  means  as  great  as  in  many  other  large 
towns,  thanks  to  the  number  of  open  spaces, 
parks,  and  squares.  It  is  estimated  that  every 
inhabitant  occupies  22.97  cubic  metres  in  the 
central  quarters,  45.02  in  the  outskirts,  16.83  ifl 
the  city,  and  56.08  in  the  South. 

The  administration  of  Stockholm  is  in  the  hands 
of  a  Governor-General  (Ofverstathallare),  ap- 
pointed by  the  King,  who  represents  the  Govern- 
ment, and  a  Town  Council  (instituted  in  1862) 
composed  of  a  hundred  members,  elected  by  the 
ratepayers.  The  office  of  Town  Councillor  (Stads- 
full  magtige)  is  honorary,  but  the  social  status  it 
confers  is  such  that  a  seat  in  the  Town  Council  is 
recognised  as  the  highest  honour  to  which  a  citizen 


The  Capital  81 

can  aspire,  as  a  proof  of  the  confidence  his  fellows 
repose  in  his  intelligence,  capacity,  and  public 
spirit.  The  revenue  of  the  Town  Council  is  18% 
millions  of  crowns  (,£1,041,666)  a  year.  Its  ex- 
penditure on  municipal  administration,  public 
works,  sanitation,  poor  relief,  hospitals,  police, 
street  lighting  and  cleaning,  amounts  to  about 
17^  millions,  the  surplus  representing  the  interest 
on  the  municipal  debt  (about  60  millions).  Of 
these  expenses,  64.3$  represent  the  cost  of  general 
administration;  21.9$  lighting,  gas,  and  elec- 
tricity; 7. 4^  poor  relief;  5.6$  hospitals;  6.8$  ceme- 
teries. School  and  church  rates  form  part  of  a 
separate  assessment.  Poor  relief  was  given  in  a 
recent  year  to  14,387  paupers,  being  4.8  per  1000 
of  the  population.  The  hospital  accommodation 
of  the  town  represents  3738  beds,  or  14  per  1000 
inhabitants.  The  number  of  children  receiving 
instruction  in  the  municipal  schools  represents 
12.2$  of  the  total  population.  Added  to  this, 
private  charity  spends  on  its  permanent  institu- 
tions for  the  relief  of  the  poor,  such  as  hospitals, 
asylums,  orphanages,  about  10  million  crowns  a 
year,  being  33  crowns  per  head  of  the  population. 
The  revenue  of  the  Town  Council  is  derived 
from  the  rates,  such  as  certain  tonnage  dues  on 
shipping,  the  rent  of  town  property,  market  stalls, 
and  the  duty  on  spirits.  The  municipal  rate  is 
levied  on  house  property  and  on  income,  on  the 
basis  of  the  Government  income-tax  lists.  The 
church  and  school  expenses  are  covered  by  special 


82  Swedish  Life 

church  and  school  rates.  The  municipal  rates, 
assessed  every  year  according  to  the  town-budget 
estimates,  are  about  3.50  crowns  per  100  crowns 
of  income;  the  school  rates  1.10$;  the  church 
rates,  which  vary  slightly  in  each  parish,  0.30$  of 
income.  To  this  must  be  added  a  fixed  hospital 
tax  of  0.50  crowns  for  every  male  member,  and 
0.25  crowns  for  every  female  member  of  each 
household,  which  brings  up  the  total  of  the  rates 
to  about  5^2$  of  income.  The  total  value  of  the 
house  property  taxed  is  assessed  at  over  500 
million  crowns,  as  compared  with  32  millions  in 
1819;  and  the  aggregate  tax-paying  incomes  of  the 
inhabitants  are  estimated  at  109.2  millions,  or  ex- 
actly three  times  the  amount  in  i860.  Taken  in 
proportion  to  the  population  this  represents  1633 
crowns  value  of  house  property  per  head,  and  a 
taxed  income  (over  and  above  incomes  up  to  500 
crowns,  which  are  not  taxed)  of  363  crowns  per 
head,  on  which  the  inhabitants  pay  19.95  crowns 
per  head  in  rates  to  the  town. 

What  ma3'  be  called  the  romance  of  the  town — 
its  life  story,  as  told  by  the  records  of  births, 
deaths,  marriages,  and  crime — may  be  summarised 
as  follows:  The  birth-rate  was,  according  to  the 
ten  years'  average,  1889-98,  27.56  per  1000  in- 
habitants; the  illegitimate  births  28.85$  °f  the 
legitimate;  the  death-rate  was  19.39,  the  marriage- 
rate  7.72  per  1000.  To  every  1000  men  there  were 
1 209  women.  Of  every  100  women  between  twenty 
and  forty-five,  15.29  gave  birth  to  legitimate,  and 


The  Capital  83 

1.76  to  illegitimate  children.  Of  every  hundred 
thousand  inhabitants,  43  died  of  accidents,  and 
103  committed  suicide;  283  were  arrested  for 
drunkenness,  and  48  were  tried  for  crime. 

Stockholm  claims  to  be  a  town  of  considerable 
literary  and  intellectual  attainments.  In  the  first 
place,  it  possesses  an  imposing  list  of  academies  : 
the  Swedish  Academy,  founded  on  the  model  of 
the  French  by  Gustavus  III.  in  1786,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  "  maintaining  the  purity,  the  power,  and 
the  elevation  of  the  Swedish  language"  ;  the 
Academy  of  Sciences,  founded  half  a  century 
earlier  by  a  society  of  scientists,  of  whom  Linnaeus 
was  the  moving  spirit;  an  Academy  of  Letters,  of 
History,  and  of  Antiquity;  another  of  Fine  Arts; 
others,  again,  of  Music,  of  Military  Science,  of 
Agriculture;  and  still  others.  All  these  learned 
institutions  serve  to  give  Stockholm  a  certain  im- 
portance in  the  eyes  of  the  scientific  and  literary 
world,  many  of  their  members  having  obtained 
European  reputations  for  scientific  research  and 
literary  accomplishments.  Moreover,  the  town 
boasts  a  large  number  of  literary  societies,  includ- 
ing a  Society  of  Authors,  a  High  School  of  Let- 
ters, and  a  Medical  Faculty,  and  a  fair  portion  of 
its  inhabitants  earn  their  livelihood  by  books  as 
authors,  publishers,  translators,  printers,  press- 
readers,  and  booksellers,  which  indicates  a  certain 
literary  activity.  But,  above  all,  the  people  in 
general  genuinely  like  books  and  show  a  keen  in- 
terest in  literature,  science,  and  art,  and  a  sincere 


84  Swedish  Life 

wish  to  take  their  share  in  all  forms  of  intellectual 
life.  The  press  devotes  a  good  part  of  its  space 
to  literary  matters.  It  follows  with  close  attention 
literary  movements,  both  at  home  and  abroad. 
Every  book  of  any  note  that  appears  in  England, 
Germany,  or  France  is  discussed  in  its  columns. 
The  book  itself  may  be  seen,  as  soon  as  it  appears, 
in  the  bookseller's  window,  and  a  Swedish  trans- 
lation of  it  not  many  weeks  later. 

The  practical  development  of  business  activity 
in  modern  life  leaves  little  leisure  for  intellectual 
pursuits,  while  sport  and  the  cares  of  physical  de- 
velopment absorb  most  of  the  leisure  hours  of 
youth.  Nevertheless,  the  numbers  who  crowd 
the  museums,  who  attend  lectures,  and  who  make 
use  of  the  public  libraries,  evince  a  desire  for 
knowledge  and  an  interest  in  the  things  pertain- 
ing to  the  intellectual  life  which  are  quite  char- 
acteristic of  the  Swede,  and  illustrate  his  native 
earnestness  and  love  of  progress.  The  number 
of  lectures  on  scientific,  literary,  and  general  sub- 
jects which  the  average  Stockholmer  of  the  middle 
classes  attends  would  astonish  the  reader,  were  an 
approximate  estimate  of  them  made.  Society  and 
Court  circles,  as  a  rule,  are  less  intellectually  in- 
clined, although,  thanks  to  the  King's  example 
in  this  respect,  they  may,  at  times,  affect  to  be  so. 
But  for  the  middle  classes  the  theatres,  the  lectures, 
and  a  concert  now  and  then  constitute  the  great 
interests  of  life.  Stockholm  has  ten  theatres, 
or  more  than  three  for  every  hundred  thousand 


The  Capital  85 

inhabitants,  and  they  are  comparatively  cheap;  35. 
in  the  stalls  (except  at  the  opera,  where  the  figure 
is  55.),  and  from  is.  to  2s.  in  the  other  seats.  In 
concert-rooms  the  charge  is  rarely  more  than  a 
shilling  or  two,  and  the  best  classical  music  may 
be  heard  there.  At  the  lectures,  the  entrance  fee 
is  generally  very  small,  and,  indeed,  merely  nom- 
inal, since  they  are  mostly  arranged  on  philan- 
thropic lines,  in  connection  with  the  university 
extension  movement,  or  from  a  laudable  desire  on 
the  part  of  the  learned  to  popularise  science,  and 
io  spread  useful  knowledge  among  the  people. 

The  Stockholmer  is  eminently  social  and  gre- 
garious. He  likes  meeting  and  fraternising  with 
his  fellow-citizens.  He  is  lively,  easy-going,  and 
easily  amused.  It  does  not  take  much  induce- 
ment to  make  him  leave  his  home  of  an  evening, 
after  his  dinner,  and  stroll  forth  in  search  of  re- 
laxation after  his  day's  work.  He  generally  dines 
early,  between  five  and  six  o'clock,  on  returning 
from  his  office  or  his  counting-house,  his  trade  or 
his  professional  duties,  and  he  sups  at  ten.  This 
latter  meal  he  mostly  takes  away  from  home,  at 
a  cafe  or  restaurant,  in  company  with  friends. 
Stockholm  has  an  exceptionally  large  number  of 
these  establishments,  always  crowded  in  the  even- 
ings, and  all  doing  a  thriving  business.  This 
stroll  after  dinner,  accompanied  very  often  by  his 
whole  family,  leads  him  naturally  to  the  theatre, 
the  concert-room,  or  the  lecture-hall,  where  he 
whiles  away  the  time  until  supper.     Club  life  is 


86  Swedish  Life 

almost  unknown  in  his  class.  The  cafe  and  the 
restaurant,  after  the  theatre,  the  concert,  or  the 
lecture,  take  its  place,  for  he  can  take  his  family 
there,  meet  his  nearest  friends,  and  enjoy  his 
punch  or  whisky  and  soda  after  supper,  while  the 
ladies  are  having  their  tea.  It  is  not,  perhaps,  in 
the  long  run,  the  cheapest  way  of  spending  his 
evenings,  but  the  Swede  is  proverbially  improvi- 
dent. He  has  the  airy  insouciance  in  matters  of 
economy  of  those  who  hold  that  money  is  made 
to  circulate.  And  circulate  it  must  when  it  gets 
into  his  pocket.  Time  enough  to  stay  at  home 
when  it  is  no  longer  there.  He  will  pinch  and 
economise  at  home;  he  can  be  the  most  abstemious 
of  beings  behind  his  closed  doors;  but  when  the 
eyes  of  his  friends  and  acquaintances  are  upon 
him,  he  is  a  very  Don  Magnifico  and  must  show 
that  he  does  not  know  what  it  is  to  stint  himself 
in  anything.  He  is  hospitable,  too,  at  times,  but 
can  only  be  so  with  ostentation.  He  must  have 
everything  of  the  very  best  or  not  at  all.  His 
board  must  be  a  culinary  feast,  for  his  cheer  is  all 
the  heartier  when  he  can  make  a  grand  display 
of  it.  He  owes  it  to  himself  and  to  his  friends  to 
be  lavish  and  Grand  Seigneur  in  the  exercise  of 
his  hospitality.  His  friends  will  be  the  same 
when  they  return  it,  no  matter  what  it  costs  them. 
They  will  live  frugally  many  days  after  to  make 
up  for  the  expense  of  the  show,  but  a  show 
it  must  be.  To  admit  any  one  to  his  daily  re- 
past without  pomp  or  formality  never  enters  the 


The  Capital  87 

Swedish  burgher's  mind.  A  certain  amount  of 
' '  attitude ' '  is  necessary  to  courtesy  and  good 
manners. 

'Among  the  higher  class,  of  course,  it  is  different. 
At  a  certain  summit,  manners  become  cosmopoli- 
tan; national  characteristics  and  idiosyncrasies 
get  toned  down  and  disappear.  Court  life  and 
"  Society  "  are  more  or  less  the  same  everywhere. 
The  Swedish  nobleman  has  been  much  abroad  and 
has  associated  with  his  equals  among  all  nations. 
His  ancestral  traditions  have  formed  him  after  a 
given  type,  with  the  refined  manners  and  some- 
what proud  bearing  of  the  distinguished  few  in  all 
societies.  He  has  retained,  perhaps,  more  of  the 
stately  courtesy  and  les  grandes  manures  of  his 
forefathers,  having  been  less  in  contact  with  the 
levelling  tendencies  of  the  age,  and  lost  less  of  his 
prestige  in  the  estimation  of  his  countrymen. 
Hence  society,  though  much  changed  around 
him,  is  still  less  mixed  than  in  many  other  coun- 
tries. The  old  distinctions  die  hard,  and  still 
subsist  in  many  respects.  At  Court  balls  and  re- 
ceptions, the  distinctions  of  birth  are  to  a  certain 
extent  kept  up.  Position,  office,  rank,  and  per- 
sonal merit  supplement  birth  in  the  official  hier- 
archy, but  the  nobleman's  privileges  have  not  all 
disappeared  in  official  recognition.  The  House 
of  Nobles,  although  it  has  ceased  to  exist  as  a 
political  body,  and  has  lost  all  importance  even  as 
a  social  institution,  is  still  looked  upon  as  the  rally- 
ing centre  of  a  class.     Class  distinctions,  however, 


88 


Swedish  Life 


are  very  much  tempered  by  the  natural  kindliness 
and  the  strong  sentiment  of  individuality  which 
are  both  characteristic  of  the  Swede.  This  natural 
kindliness  on  the  one  side  and  a  great  simplicity 
of  manners  on  the  other  bring  together  men  who 
are  widely  separated  by  rank  and  position;  the 
strongly  developed  feeling  of  individual  freedom 
and  dignity  common  to  both  render  their  relations 
easy  and  unconstrained,  eliminating  the  disposi- 
tion to  condescension  on  the  one  side  and  to  arro- 
gance on  the  other. 


CHAPTER   IV 

PUBLIC   EDUCATION 

THERE  are  few  countries  in  which  education 
is  as  free  as  in  Sweden.  From  the  grammar 
school  to  the  university,  in  all  its  stages,  the  cost 
is  defrayed  entirely  by  the  State  or  the  parish. 
Education  is  thus  not  a  privilege  of  the  wealthy, 
but  a  benefit  common  to  all.  In  the  elementary 
or  people's  school  (Folkskold),  maintained  by  the 
parish  under  the  direction  of  the  School  Board, 
and  the  close  supervision  of  the  State,  instruction 
is  compulsory  as  well  as  gratuitous.  Between  the 
ages  of  seven  and  fourteen,  every  boy  and  girl 
must  attend  a  public  school,  unless  the  parents 
can  show  that  their  child  is  receiving  equivalent 
instruction  elsewhere,  in  a  private  school  or  at 
home.  No  exception  or  compromise  is  allowed, 
and  no  "  half-time"  system  or  "  rush"  through 
the  school  to  suit  the  convenience  of  the  factory 
or  the  farmer.  For  seven  years,  during  eight  and 
a  half  months  of  the  year — allowing  for  summer, 
Christmas,  and  Easter  holidays — and  thirty-six 
hours  per  week,  every  boy  and  girl  in  the  king- 
dom receives  instruction'  and  goes  through  the 

89 


90  Swedish  Life 

same  curriculum.  The  School  Board,  which  has 
the  direct  management  of  the  schools,  is  elected 
by  the  parish,  and  women  are  eligible  to  it.  The 
State  which  controls  the  whole  system  of  educa- 
tion, from  the  ABC  class  to  the  college  and  uni- 
versity, maintains  alike  its  unity  and  its  efficiency, 
and  sees  to  the  strict  enforcement  of  the  law. 
Parents  who  try  to  evade  it,  through  malevolence 
or  neglect,  may  even,  after  due  warning,  be  de- 
prived of  their  children,  who  are  taken  over  by 
the  community  during  their  school  years. 

In  thinly  populated  districts,  the  school  may 
be  "  ambulatory,"  held  now  in  one  part  of  the 
district  and  now  in  another,  so  that  all  may  attend 
it  in  turn.  In  such  cases,  the  schooling  is  reduced 
to  four  months  in  the  year.  But  there  is  no  dis- 
trict, however  poor  or  thinly  populated,  without 
its  Folkskola.  There  are  nearly  12,000  of  these 
in  the  land,  attended  by  742,000  pupils,  and  em- 
ploying 16,270  teachers  of  both  sexes,  and  they 
cost  the  community  twenty  millions  of  crowns 
yearly,  that  is,  3.97  crowns  (4s.  \d.~)  per  head  of 
the  population.1 

No  more  conscientious,  hard-working,  and  re- 
spectable class  of  men  and  women  can  be  found 
than  the  teachers.  Eight  years'  study,  first  in  a 
special  seminary  (Sko/ldrare,  Skollararinne  Semi- 
narium)  and  then  in  a  training  college,  has  taught 
them  their  profession  both  in  theory  and  in  prac- 
tice. They  are  convinced  of  the  importance  and 
1  Sveriges  Land  och  Folk,  G.  Sundbarg. 


Public  Education  91 

dignity  of  their  office  and  are  respected  accord- 
ingly. Socially,  the  general  type  of  the  school 
teacher  is  a  superior  one.  There  are  at  present  in 
the  Riksdag,  occupying  seats  as  Members  of  the 
Second  Chamber,  no  fewer  than  eleven  teachers 
in  elementary  schools,  twelve  teachers  in  secondary 
schools,  one  inspector  of  schools,  and  one  uni- 
versity professor.  In  the  rural  community,  the 
schoolmaster  is  somewhat  of  an  authority.  Most 
of  the  members  of  the  parish  have  ' '  sat  under 
him  "  at  school  in  their  early  life,  and  owe  to  him 
most  of  what  they  know.  For  years,  he  has  been 
diffusing  knowledge  around  him  and  has  been 
looked  up  to  as  the  fountain  of  book  learning. 
He  is  the  local  parson's  great  coadjutor  in  parish 
matters,  and,  being  a  ready  speaker,  is  of  no  mean 
influence  in  the  parish  assemblies. 

The  dark  spot  in  the  existence  of  these  school 
teachers  is  that  they  are  miserably  paid,  even  for 
the  Swedish  standard  of  life.  They  receive  700, 
800,  900,  or  1000  crowns  (^"45  to  ^55)  a  year,  ac- 
cording to  the  importance  and  estimated  cost  of 
life  of  the  district  in  which  they  are  placed  and 
their  years  of  service,  and  they  are  secured  pensions 
in  old  age.  In  Stockholm  and  other  large  towns, 
the  highest  rate  of  pay  is  in  exceptional  cases  1200 
crowns  with  300  crowns  in  lieu  of  rent.  Their 
ambitions  are  thus  limited  to  the  hope  of  rising 
from  the  lower  to  the  higher  degrees  in  the  service, 
with  a  proportionate  advancement  in  the  scale  of 
pay.     I,ife  is,  however,  cheap  in  the  rural  districts, 


92  Swedish  Life 

and  these  teachers,  who  are  drawn  generally  from 
the  rural  and  indigent  classes,  are  accustomed  to 
frugality  and  economy.  They  are  lodged  free  of 
rent  in  the  schoolhouse  or  a  cottage  attached  to 
it,  and  are  allowed  firewood  and  other  small  per- 
quisites. They  generally  have  a  small  garden  or 
potato  ground  to  cultivate,  and  can  keep  a  cow 
and  a  few  hens.  They  often  add  to  their  modest 
stipend  by  extra  work,  such  as  teaching  in  the 
evening  classes,  playing  the  organ  in  church,  and 
writing  or  handiwork  after  school  hours. 

The  curriculum  of  the  Folkskola  comprises  read- 
ing, writing,  arithmetic,  geometry,  history,  nat- 
ural sciences,  "Christianity,"  singing,  drawing, 
and  gymnastics,  to  which  in  most  schools  are 
added  sloyd  or  slbjd  (carpentering,  etc.)  and  gar- 
dening for  the  boys,  and  needlework  and  cooking 
for  the  girls.  In  the  latter  case,  the  food  cooked 
provides  the  midday  meal  for  the  poor  pupils  who 
are  unable  to  provide  for  themselves.  In  some 
cases,  it  is  distributed  to  the  poor.  What  is  called 
"Christianity"  means  reading  and  commenting 
upon  the  Old  and  the  New  Testament,  Luther's 
Catechism,  and  the  Swedish  Hymn-book.  The 
religious  teaching  is  thus  simple  and  undenomi- 
national as  far  as  Protestant  pupils  are  concerned, 
whether  they  belong  to  the  State  Church  or  the 
so-called  Free  Churches,  representing  the  different 
sects  of  Non-conformists.  There  are  not  many 
Roman  Catholics  in  Sweden  and  but  few  Jews, 
and  none  at  all  in  the  rural  districts.     Thus  the  re- 


to 

CO 

< 

o 

a 

> 
o 


Public  Education  93 

ligious  difficulty  which  arises  in  countries  of  mixed 
religious  denominations,  like  England  and  Ger- 
many, or  where  irreligion  is  raised  to  a  political 
dogma  as  in  France,  does  not  exist  here.  Non- 
Protestant  parents  whose  children  attend  the  pub- 
lic schools  are,  however,  allowed  to  have  them 
exempted  from  the  religious  teaching,  on  the 
understanding  that  they  will  provide  for  it,  in 
their  own  faith,  by  other  means.  As  to  rational- 
ism and  materialism,  they  do  not  obtrude  at  all 
in  official  life.  They  may  be  vented  in  literature 
and  the  Press — yet  guardedly  and  in  measured 
terms,  for  any  overt  attack  on  the  Church  or  on 
Christianity  is  an  indictable  offence — but  they  find 
no  echo  whatever  in  the  schools. 

The  physical  training  of  the  children  is  on  a 
par  with  their  mental  development.  Gymnastic 
exercises  on  scientific  principles  are  attended  to 
daily,  and  drill  is  part  of  the  school  plan.  The 
Swedish  invention  sloyd,  which  has  become  almost 
a  national  attainment,  develops  mechanical  prac- 
tice and  general  handiness.  Scholars'  excursions 
connected  with  the  study  of  botany  and  geology 
are  often  undertaken,  providing  a  free  day  in  the 
woods,  welcome  to  pupil  and  teacher  alike.  Bath- 
ing in  the  lake  is  almost  universal  in  summer,  and 
bathrooms  are  provided  in  most  schools  for  the 
winter,  where  the  children  are  seated  in  tubs  in  a 
circle  and  soap  and  scrub  each  other  in  turn 

At  fifteen,  after  seven  years'  assiduous  attend- 
ance  at   the   Folkskola,    the   boy   and  girl   have 


94  Swedish  Life 

"  finished  "  their  education,  as  far  as  compulsory 
instruction  goes,  and  they  are  free  to  begin  work 
on  their  father's  farm,  in  his  shop  or  his  trade,  or 
to  take  service  elsewhere  and  to  shift  for  them- 
selves. They  may,  however,  if  they  like,  pursue 
their  studies  further  in  the  continuation  schools, 
or  in  the  evening  classes  provided  in  most  parishes, 
or  repair  to  a  college  or  gymnasium  in  town,  if  they 
elect  to  enter  the  Church,  the  liberal  professions, 
or  the  service  of  the  State.  But  they  have  first  to 
be  confirmed.  It  is  here  that  the  definite  religious 
instruction  is  given.  The  preparation  for  -con- 
firmation, which  entails  a  much  longer  and  more 
advanced  course  of  religious  instruction  than  is 
usual  for  confirmation  in  England,  is  independent 
of  the  school  and  takes  place  in  church,  parents 
being  allowed  every  liberty  in  the  choice  of  the 
clergyman  who  performs  this  office  for  their  child- 
ren. English  readers  who  are  acquainted  with 
Longfellow's  admirable  translation  of  Tegner's 
beautiful  poem,  The  Children  of  the  Lord's  Slipper, 
are  aware  of  the  importance  of  this  ceremony  in 
Swedish  social  life.  It  is  the  great  turning-point 
in  the  existence  of  Scandinavian  youth.  The  boy 
and  girl  emerging  from  it  leave  boyhood  and  girl- 
hood behind  them.  Knee-breeches  and  short 
frocks  have  given  way  to  trousers  and  long  skirts. 
The  boy  sports  his  first  watch  and  glories  in  his 
first  shirt-front.  The  girl  discards  her  long  plaits, 
and  wears  her  hair  in  a  top-knot.  They  have 
made  their  profession  of  faith  in  public,  have  been 


Public  Education  95 

examined  in  regard  to  it,  and  have  bad  to  answer 
for  it  in  the  presence  of  the  whole  congregation. 
They  have  assumed  henceforth  the  full  responsi- 
bility of  their  acts.  In  the  eyes  of  the  Church,  if 
not  yet  in  the  eyes  of  the  law,  they  are  free  and 
responsible  members  of  society. 
^j^The  secondary  schools  are  maintained  by  the 
State,  and  are  confined  to  the  towns.  They  com- 
prise nine  forms  in  seven  classes,  of  which  the  last 
two  have  double  forms.  The  first  three  corre- 
spond to  the  curriculum  of  the  primary  schools. 
Scholars  who  have  passed  these  enter  in  the  fourth 
form.  They  are  generally  divided  into  two 
branches,  the  classical  and  the  modern  {lafinlinie, 
realtime),  according  as  classics  or  languages 
predominate  in  the  curriculum,  which  comprises 
religion,  Swedish  composition,  history,  geogra- 
phy, philosophy,  Latin,  Greek,  German,  English, 
French,  mathematics,  zoology,  botany,  physics, 
chemistry,  and  drawing.  After  the  fourth  form, 
pupils  must  declare,  with  the  written  approbation 
of  their  parents  or  guardians,  whether  they  will 
follow  the  classical  or  the  non-classical  branch, 
according  as  they  intend  to  qualify  for  the  univer- 
sities or  the  technical  high  schools.  The  vexed 
question  of  classical  versiis  non-classical  education 
is,  therefore,  solved  by  the  choice  being  left  to 
those  primarily  interested  in  it,  and  decided  by 
the  requirements  of  the  career  to  be  followed  by 
the  pupil.  The  universities  require  Latin;  for 
through  them  must  be  entered  the  professions  and 


96  Swedish  Life 

the  Civil  Service;  while  the  technical  high  schools, 
which  turn  out  engineers  and  architects,  and  the 
military  school,  which  leads  into  the  Army,  must 
be  entered  through  the  modern  or  non-classical 
branch,  languages  and  mathematics  holding  there 
the  first  place. 

Not  all  the  pupils  who  attend  these  secondary 
schools  complete  the  full  course  and  pass  the  final 
examination.  More  than  half — those  who  mean 
to  devote  themselves  to  trade,  agriculture,  or  in- 
dustry, and  those  who  have  not  developed  the 
capabilities  necessary  to  confront  the  severe  final 
test  of  the  "maturity"  examination — leave  the 
school  on  attaining  the  upper  forms.  During  the 
last  decennial  period,  the  average  number  who 
thus  left  before  completing  the  nine  years'  course 
was  1883  per  annum;  of  whom  531  were  employed 
in  trade,  225  in  the  industries,  246  in  agriculture, 
and  85  in  the  navy.  The  Royal  Navy  must  be 
entered  at  fourteen,  with  a  severe  course  of  six 
years  at  the  Naval  School  in  order  to  pass  as 
officer.  In  the  merchant  service,  it  is  also  neces- 
sary to  begin  early,  as  the  special  examinations 
for  passing  as  mate  and  master  are  based  on  prac- 
tical knowledge  and  experience  in  navigation. 

To  those  who  intend  to  enter  the  professions,  the 
civil  and  military  service,  and  the  Church,  the  full 
course  of  the  secondary  school  is  necessary,  the 
"  maturity"  examination  certificate  being  the  only 
open  sesame  to  the  universities,  the  special  col- 
leges, and  the  technical  high  schools.     To  obtain 


Public  Education  97 

it  and  to  don  the  white  cap,  which  is  the  outward 
and  visible  sign  of  university  membership,  and 
the  dignity  of  avis  academicus  acquired  by  it,  is 
the  first  great  step  in  life  of  ambitious  youth.  Of 
the  850  pupils  who  in  1900  passed  their  "  ma- 
turity," 491  had  followed  the  L,atin  or  classical 
branch,  and  259  the  modern  section  of  their 
school.  Of  these,  369  went  to  the  universities, 
the  rest  being  divided  between  the  medical, 
veterinary,  and  pharmaceutical  institutes,  the 
military  college,  and  the  technical  high  schools. 

The  course  in  the  secondary  school  is  long  and 
severe,  but  it  is  not  one-sided.  It  aims  more  at 
general  knowledge  than  at  any  specialisation  of 
acquirements.  It  takes  the  pupil  nine  or  ten 
years  to  climb  from  the  first  to  the  last  form,  so 
that  supposing  he  gets  his  remove  every  year  and 
never  has  to  double  a  form,  he  is  nineteen  or 
twenty  when  he  takes  his  "  maturity."  But  his 
mind  is  then  stocked  with  as  good  a  store  of  gen- 
eral knowledge  as  he  could  obtain  anywhere. 
The  school  has  not  sought  to  produce  in  him  an 
intellectual  prodigy,  a  mind  specially  moulded  to 
philosophical  speculation  and  classical  thought  or 
trained  to  mathematical  abstractions,  but  one  en- 
dowed with  a  clear  and  comprehensive  under- 
standing of  most  things,  possessed  of  a  solid  fund 
of  useful  knowledge,  and  capable  of  further  special 
development  in  any  given  direction.  The  aim  in 
his  training  has  been,  not  scholastic  specialisation, 
but  general    and    thorough    acquaintance   with 


98  Swedish  Life 

languages,  natural  sciences,  practical  geography, 
and  the  lessons  of  history,  acquired  with  the  refine- 
ment of  thought  and  style  which  a  certain  famil- 
iarity with  classics  must  always  give. 

The  teachers  in  these  schools  are  all  men  of  high 
standing,  who  have  taken  their  degrees  at  the  uni- 
versity. They  consist  of  a  rector  and  a  certain 
number  of  masters,  forming  the  College  Council. 
They  are  appointed  and  paid  by  Government,  and 
rank  as  State  functionaries.  Their  salaries  range 
from  1500  to  6000  crowns  a  year.  A  rector's 
salary  is  from  4000  to  6000  crowns,  and  an  assist- 
ant master's  from  1500  to  3000  crowns.  Each 
school  has  its  debating  society  and  its  commit- 
tee of  sports;  and  military  drill,  fencing,  and  rifle 
practice  form  part  of  the  routine. 

As  in  the  parish  or  communal  primary  school, 
the  whole  course  in  the  State  secondary  school  is 
free.  In  some  of  these  schools,  pupils  are  re- 
quired to  pay  a  fee  of  30  crowns  G£i  13s.)  a  year; 
but  this  is  more  in  the  way  of  a  voluntary  contri- 
bution towards  a  fund  for  providing  ' '  prizes  ' '  for 
deserving  pupils,  and  also  special  instruments 
in  the  physical  and  chemical  laboratories,  the 
cost  of  experiments,  fencing  apparatus,  and  such 
things,  and  indigent  pupils  are  easily  exempted 
from  paying  it.  The  maintenance  of  the  second- 
ary schools  costs  the  State  3,824,684  crowns  per 
annum  (1900),  or  222.69  crowns  per  pupil.  In- 
cluding the  indirect  contribution  of  the  parishes 
and  municipalities  in  the  way  of  buildings  for 


Public  Education  99 

the  schools,  and  other  items,  the  total  annual 
cost  of  these  schools  may  be  put  down  at  4^ 
million  crowns  (,£250,000).  The  communes  have 
to  provide  the  ground  on  which  a  schoolhouse 
is  built.  As  a  proof  of  the  dimensions  and  luxury 
of  these  buildings,  it  may  be  stated  that  one  of 
the  State  school  buildings  at  Stockholm  cost 
842,000  crowns  (,£46,777),  and  another  783,000 
crowns,  without  counting  the  value  of  the  build- 
ing ground,  which  was  provided  by  the  town. 
The  secondary  school  building  at  Gothenburg 
cost  542,000  crowns,  exclusive  of  the  ground, 
and  that  of  a  small  town  like  Vexio  317,000 
crowns.  The  total  cost  of  secondary  school  build- 
ings in  the  country  represented  in  1898,  io}( 
million  crowns.  The  number  of  pupils  receiving 
instruction  in  them  was,  in  1900,  17, 479,  which 
represents  32.2  per  hundred  thousand  inhabitants. 

The  private  secondary  schools  are  under  Gov- 
ernment control,  and  follow  exactly  the  same  cur- 
riculum as  the  State  schools.  The  examinations 
are  passed  in  the  presence  of  Government  censors, 
on  exactly  the  same  programme  and  schedules  as 
the  latter.  The  certificate  of  "  maturity"  given 
by  them  is,  therefore,  equally  valid.  They  are 
all  day  schools,  for  such  a  thing  as  a  boarding 
school  does  not  exist  in  Sweden.  The  children 
of  parents  living  in  the  country  board  with  fami- 
lies in  town,  generally  with  such  as  have  children 
attending  the  same  school. 

The  high   schools  for  girls    are  of  relatively 


ioo  Swedish  Life 

recent  creation.  The  authority  for  girls  to  pass 
the  examination  of ' '  maturity  ' '  and  enter  the  uni- 
versity dates  from  1870.  The  curriculum  in  these 
is  exactly  the  same  as  that  for  boys.  The  right 
of  examination  and  of  granting  certificates  of 
"  maturity"  is  possessed  by  five  of  them.  The 
number  of  girls  who  have  passed  this  examination 
since  1870  was  in  1900,  605,  and  is  on  the  increase, 
though  as  yet  it  is  only  about  five  per  cent,  of  the 
number  of  boys.  A  certain  number  of  them  pro- 
ceed to  the  universities,  and  several  have  obtained 
university  degrees.  There  are  now  nine  women 
doctors  of  philosophy,  nineteen  women  medical 
practitioners,  and  one  doctor  of  law  holding  an 
assistant  professorship  at  the  University  of  Upsala. 
Characteristic  of  Sweden  are  the  "  mixed 
schools"  for  boys  and  girls  {Samskola).  These 
exist  not  only  as  elementary  but  also  as  secondary 
schools,  and  the  two  sexes  continue  together  as 
far  as  the  examination  for  ' '  maturity. ' '  No  in- 
conveniences seem  to  arise  from  the  mingling  of 
the  sexes  on  the  same  school-benches,  even  at  this 
advanced  age,  and  so  far  from  giving  rise  to  jeal- 
ousies and  ill-feeling  it  creates  a  salutary  emulation 
and  a  disposition  to  mutual  assistance.  From  the 
age  of  fourteen  to  that  of  nineteen  or  twenty,  these 
boys  and  girls,  already  on  the  threshold  of  man- 
hood and  womanhood,  sit  side  by  side,  writing 
L,atin  verses,  puzzling  over  mathematical  pro- 
blems, or  inditing  eloquent  essays  on  delicate 
points  of  Swedish  history,  and  the  presence  of  the 


Public  Education  101 

opposite  sex,  instead  of  causing  difficulties,  acts  as 
a  stimulus  and  promotes  chivalry  and  good  com- 
radeship. And  when  the  great  day  arrives  and 
the  final  examination  is  passed  together,  boys  and 
girls  emerge  wearing  the  same  white  cap,  emblem 
of  equal  academical  citizenship,  to  meet  their 
friends  and  be  decked  with  flowers,  as  is  the  im- 
memorial custom.  On  examination  days,  any 
number  of  white-capped  young  men  and  young 
women  may  be  seen  walking  home  in  the  midst  of 
smiling  and  beaming  parents  and  relatives,  their 
breast  literally  covered  with  wreaths  and  flowers, 
pinned  thereon  by  the  acquaintances  who  have 
come  to  congratulate  them.  Nevertheless,  the 
student  girl  is  still  the  exception,  and  the  white 
student  cap  is  as  often  as  not  discarded  soon  after 
it  is  won,  as  the  feeling  of  triumph  at  having 
proved  to  the  world  the  capacity  to  win  it  wears 
away. 

There  are  two  universities  in  Sweden — Upsala 
in  the  North,  founded  in  1477;  and  Lund  in  the 
South,  founded  in  1668,  to  which  may  be  added 
the  Medical  College  (Karolinska  Institutet)  in 
Stockholm,  founded  in  1810,  and  limited  to  the 
medical  faculty,  and  the  high  schools  of  Stockholm 
and  Gothenburg,  founded  respectively  in  1878  and 
1 89 1,  for  letters  and  the  sciences.  The  number 
of  students  at  each  of  these  was  in  1900  as  fol- 
lows: Upsala,  1449;  Lund,  649;  Medical  College, 
294;  High  School  at  Stockholm,  40;  and  High 
School  at  Gothenburg,  67.     The  studies  at  the 


102  Swedish  Life 

universities  are  thorough  and  comprehensive,  but 
unusually  long.  They  have  each  four  faculties — 
theology,  jurisprudence,  medicine,  and  philoso- 
phy, and  grant  three  different  degrees  in  each — 
Candidate,  Licentiate,  and  Doctor,  besides  special 
degrees  in  theology  and  jurisprudence  for  entering 
the  Church  and  the  Government  services.  Even 
these  last,  which  are  the  easiest  to  obtain,  require 
a  course  of  from  four  to  five  years,  but  the  others 
take  from  seven  to  eleven  years.  Thus,  to  obtain 
the  degree  qualifying  him  to  enter  the  law  courts 
or  practise  as  a  lawyer,  a  young  man  requires 
seven  years  of  university  life;  to  obtain  that  of 
licentiate  of  medicine,  without  which  he  will  not 
be  allowed  to  practise  as  a  medical  man,  takes  no 
less  than  eleven  years,  including  two  years  of 
hospital  work;  to  qualify  as  a  teacher  (except 
in  the  primary  schools)  takes  six  to  eight  years; 
to  prepare  for  ordination  takes  five  to  six  years, 
and  if  a  man  aspires  to  a  high  theological  degree, 
he  must  prolong  his  stay  at  the  Alma  Mater  to 
nine  years.  The  reason  of  this  unexampled 
length  of  time  spent  of  necessity  at  the  university 
in  order  to  obtain  the  usual  degrees,  is  not  solely 
due  to  the  high  standard  required.  This  standard 
is  certainly  high,  and  the  degree  of  the  Swedish 
universities  holds  high  rank  among  the  learned  in 
consequence.  But  a  great  deal  of  the  delay  must 
be  ascribed  to  the  old-fashioned  arrangements  and 
formalities  connected  with  attendance  on  lectures 
and  the  preparation  for  examination.     The  opin- 


Public  Education  103 

ion  is  gaining  ground  that  these  are  unnecessarily 
long,  complicated,  and  tedious,  and  a  movement 
has  been  set  on  foot  which  will  probably  lead  to  a 
reform  in  the  procedure. 

Too  much  liberty  is  also  left  to  the  student  or 
undergraduate  in  the  prosecution  and  co-ordina- 
tion of  his  studies.  Whether  he  works  or  not  is 
known  to  no  one  but  himself.  He  is  alone  re- 
sponsible for  the  time  taken  and  the  order  followed 
in  preparing  each  subject  for  his  examination. 
When  he  judges  himself  sufficiently  prepared  in 
one,  he  applies  to  the  professor  for  a  tentameny  or 
test  trial,  in  the  professor's  special  branch.  If 
approved,  the  result  of  this  preliminary  examina- 
tion counts  in  his  favour  in  the  general  and  public 
one.  If  rejected,  he  must  return  to  his  plodding 
on  the  subject  for  another  three  months  or  more, 
and  then  try  again.  It  is  only  when  he  has  ob- 
tained his  tentamen  certificates  in  all  the  prescribed 
subjects  that  he  can  go  up  for  the  final  examina- 
tion. 

Unlike  the  English,  the  Swedish  universities 
are  non-residential.  Like  those  of  the  Continent, 
they  are  only  teaching  institutions,  and  the  stu- 
dents who  matriculate  at  Upsala  or  Lund  must 
lodge  in  town  or  board  with  the  families  living 
there.  Beyond  attending  the  lectures  and  going 
up  to  be  "  tested,"  they  have  no  direct  intercourse 
with  their  professors.  The  tie  between  the  pro- 
fessors and  students,  and  especially  between  the 
students  themselves,  is  more  closely  kept  up  in 


104  Swedish  Life 

private,  in  the  peculiar  associations  which  go  by 
the  name  of  Nations.  Every  student  must  belong 
to  the  ' '  Nation ' '  representing  the  part  of  the 
country  he  comes  from.  These  "Nations,"  of 
which  there  are  thirteen  at  Upsala  and  twelve  at 
Lund,  partake  of  the  character  alike  of  club,  de- 
bating society,  and  trade  union.  A  "Nation" 
is  an  association  of  students  belonging  to  the  same 
province  formed  for  mutual  assistance  and  enter- 
tainment. The  members  of  a  "  Nation ' '  elect 
among  themselves  their  president  and  executive, 
their  director  or  curator,  and  their  orators;  they 
choose  from  among  their  professors  one  as  in- 
spector of  the  ' '  Nation  ' '  and  others  as  honorary 
members  of  it.  They  meet  in  the  evenings  to 
debate  on  current  university  events  or  to  arrange 
special  entertainments,  in  which  music,  private 
theatricals,  and  Student  Spex — improvised  come- 
dies and  ' '  skits  ' '  on  academic  society — form  a 
prominent  feature.  Now  and  then,  when  the 
"  Nation's  "  funds  are  ample,  they  give  a  ball,  to 
which  the  professors  and  their  families  are  invited. 
Most  of  the  ' '  Nations ' '  are  rich  enough  to  pos- 
sess houses  of  their  own  in  Upsala  and  L,und,  in 
which  they  meet  and  give  their  entertainments. 
Each  "Nation"  has  its  choir  and  its  flag  or 
standard,  round  which  all  the  members  rally 
when  they  march  iu  procession  to  wait  upon  the 
authorities,  to  attend  a  ceremony,  or  to  serenade 
a  favourite  professor. 
The  university  men's  choirs  are  also  famous  in 


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o 
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Public  Education  105 

Sweden.  They  have,  indeed,  obtained  a  certain 
European  renown  since  they  carried  off  the  prizes 
for  choir  singing  at  the  Paris  Exhibition.  The 
fresh  and  well-trained  young  voices,  singing  in 
parts  and  without  accompaniment,  the  old  Scandi- 
navian melodies  and  the  student  songs  of  their 
country,  now  lively  and  martial  and  expressing 
the  ardour  and  impetuousness  of  j'outh,  now  soft 
and  melancholy  with  the  peculiar  pathos  of  the 
North,  are  well  known  to  all  who  have  visited 
Sweden.  They  are  often  heard  even  out  of  the 
university,  as  the  students  are  ever  ready  to  en- 
liven with  their  song  a  national  festivity  or  a 
charitable  entertainment.  The  different  "Na- 
tions ' '  of  the  university  form  a  sort  of  federation 
which  represents  the  whole  body  of  students  as 
matriculated  at  the  Alma  Mater  (Studentkar). 
Its  action  is  efficacious  in  maintaining  discipline 
among  the  body  and  centralising  its  interests. 

The  universities  dispose  of  large  revenues  and 
numerous  scholarships,  given  to  impecunious 
students  to  assist  them  in  the  pursuit  of  their 
studies.  The  aggregate  capital  of  these  founda- 
tions, the  revenue  of  which  is  given  away  in  such 
scholarships,  amounts  to  about  three  million 
crowns  {£  166,666)  at  Upsala,  a  million  and  a 
half  crowns  at  Lund,  and  300,000  crowns  at  the 
Medical  Institute  of  Stockholm.  The  total  cost 
of  the  university  establishment  represented  in 
1898,  881,573  crowns  a  year  for  Upsala,  478,291 
crowns   for  Lund,   and   247,331    crowns  for  the 


106  Swedish  Life 

Medical  College  at  Stockholm.  Of  these  expenses, 
about  half  come  out  of  the  university  funds  and 
the  rest  is  paid  by  Government  out  of  State 
revenue.1 

The  University  Extension  movement,  as  intro- 
duced in  England,  has  found  its  way  to  the  Swe- 
dish universities.  Since  1893,  summer  lectures 
have  been  held  during  the  vacations  both  in 
Upsala  and  Lund,  for  persons  otherwise  unable  to 
attend  the  regular  university  courses,  and  these 
have  been  frequented  by  about  four  hundred 
persons,  principally  schoolmasters  and  school- 
mistresses from  the  primary  schools,  who  have 
employed  their  vacations  in  thus  acquiring  sup- 
plementary knowledge  on  special  subjects.  The 
success  of  the  attempt  has  led  the  university  au- 
thorities to  widen  the  sphere  of  these  summer 
lectures,  and  make  them  accessible  to  all  classes, 
and  a  committee  of  professors  has  been  appointed 
by  each  of  the  universities  to  lecture  during  the 
vacations  on  various  subjects.  The  idea  of  con- 
tributing to  the  general  instruction  of  the  masses 
has  also  found  favour  among  the  students.  Spe- 
cial associations  (  Verdandi,  etc.)  are  formed  with 
the  object  of  writing  and  publishing  light  treatises 
on  scientific  subjects,  which  treatises  are  sold  for 
a  penny,  and  circulated  especially  among  the 
working  classes.  Others  {Studenter  och  Arbetare) 
have  in  view  a  closer  intercourse  between  students 
and  working  men,  by  organising  evening  lectures, 
1  Sveriges  Land  och  Folk,  G.  Sundbarg. 


Public  Education  107 

meetings,  and  private  debates,  in  conjunction  with 
the  working  men's  associations. 

In  Stockholm,  the  movement  has  embraced  a 
wider  field.  Lectures  on  scientific  subjects  have 
been  combined  with  visits  to  the  museums  and 
historical  monuments,  under  the  guidance  of  spe- 
cial lecturers  who  explain  the  objects  exhibited. 
The  courses  are  arranged  in  combination  with  re- 
duced railway  fares  from  the  provinces  for  those 
who  participate,  and  cheap  board  in  Stockholm 
on  the  Cook's  tourist  principle.  The  idea,  started 
by  one  of  the  professors  of  the  Stockholm  High 
School,  Professor  Leche,  was  tried  for  the  first 
time  two  summers  ago,  under  the  guidance  of  a 
committee  formed  of  professors  of  the  High  School 
and  the  Academy  of  Arts,  and  presided  over  by 
Prince  Eugene,  the  King's  youngest  son.  A 
Government  grant  of  one  thousand  crowns  and  as 
much  from  the  Town  Council  enabled  the  com- 
mittee to  make  a  start,  and  six  hundred  partici- 
pants for  each  course  were  accepted  at  a  time, 
about  seventy  per  cent,  of  these  being  women. 
The  schoolhouses,  empty  during  the  vacations, 
were  used  as  dormitories,  and  beds  were  offered 
at  4a?.  a  night,  while  breakfast  and  dinner  tickets 
were  sold  at  reduced  rates,  available  at  several 
restaurants.  Each  course  lasted  a  fortnight,  and 
even  the  comparatively  poor  were  able  to  take 
part  in  it.  It  comprised  visits  to  the  museums, 
historical  palaces  and  sites  during  the  day,  in 
which  the  professors  acted  as  guides,  and  lectures 


108  Swedish  Life 

in  the  evening  in  the  large  hall  of  the  Academy 
of  Arts.  The  last  three  evenings  were  devoted 
to  music  and  the  drama.  The  lectures  on  these 
were  followed  by  concerts,  in  which  selections  of 
classical  music  were  performed,  and  two  evenings 
at  the  theatre,  one  at  the  Opera,  where  one  of 
Mozart's  operas  was  sung,  and  the  other  at  the 
Dramatic,  where  one  of  Shakespeare's  plays  was 
given  (both  at  very  reduced  prices)  for  the  mem- 
bers of  the  course.  On  the  last  night,  the  course 
was  closed  by  an  out-of-door  summer  fete  at 
Skansen,  the  open-air  museum  near  Stockholm, 
where  addresses  alternating  with  national  songs 
sung  by  student  choirs,  and  country  dances  per- 
formed by  the  school  children  in  national  costume 
produced  a  scene  of  genuine  Northern  gaiety  and 
merriment. 

For  young  men  destined  for  the  technical  trades 
and  professions,  there  are  open,  after  they  have 
passed  the  '  'maturity  ' '  examination  at  the  second- 
ary school,  two  special  institutions,  where  they 
complete  their  technical  training — the  Technical 
High  School  of  Stockholm,  and  the  Chalmers 
Technical  Institute  at  Gothenburg,  besides  the 
elementary  technical  schools  at  Malmo,  Norrkop- 
ing,  Orebro,  and  Boras.  The  Stockholm  Technical 
School,  which  is  the  most  complete,  comprises 
five  branches:  (i)  mechanical  technology  and 
machinery,  shipbuilding  and  electrotechnics;  (2) 
chemical  technology;  (3)  mineralogy,  metallurgy, 
and  mining  mechanics;  (4)  architecture;  (5)  en- 


Public  Education  109 

gineering.  The  course  in  each  of  these  sections 
takes  between  three  and  four  years.  Generally 
several  are  combined,  constituting  a  course  of  six 
or  seven  years. 

What  specially  characterises  public  instruction 
in  Sweden,  as  may  be  seen  by  the  above  sketch 
of  the  institutions  provided  by  the  State,  is  its 
undoubted  thoroughness  and  depth,  though  a 
serious  penalty  is  paid  for  this  in  the  extreme 
length  of  the  course.  By  the  time  it  is  completed, 
and  the  young  man  issues  from  the  protracted 
ordeal,  armed  for  the  battle  of  life,  several  of  the 
best  years  of  his  youth  are  passed;  he  is  already 
between  twenty-five  and  thirty  years  of  age  when 
he  treads  on  the  threshold  of  his  career.  On 
the  other  hand,  he  enters  it  not  only  with  the 
necessary  qualifications  whereby  to  rise  to  emi- 
nence in  it,  of  which  the  severe  tests  he  has  under- 
gone offer  evident  proof,  but  with  the  assurance 
of  finding  the  way  more  or  less  open  to  success. 
For  the  hedging  in  of  all  professions  by  obligations 
and  requirements  so  comprehensive  precludes  un- 
due competition  and,  to  a  certain  extent,  prevents 
overcrowding.  Inevitably,  the  length  of  this 
educational  training  reacts  on  the  social  habits  of 
the  nation.  It  is  the  primary  cause  of  the  long 
engagements  and  the  late  marriages  habitual  in 
Sweden.  A  man  can  rarely  marry  before  he  is 
thirty,  for  only  then  can  he  conclude  his  studies 
and  enter  his  profession.  Yet  he  can  look  for- 
ward to  that  day  with  confidence  as  he  approaches 


no  Swedish  Life 

the  time  of  his  final  examinations,  for,  his  diplomas 
obtained,  the  coast  lies  clear  for  him.  Hence,  as 
often  as  not,  he  becomes  engaged  while  still  at 
the  university,  spending  his  vacations  and  his 
spare  time  in  the  family  of  his  Jiancee,  where  he  is 
treated  like  a  son  of  the  house,  corresponding 
freely  with  her  when  he  is  away,  living  on  a  foot- 
ing of  great  freedom  and  intimacy  with  her,  until 
he  has  passed  his  final  examination  and  obtained 
his  first  post,  when  they  are  able  to  marry  and  set 
up  house  for  themselves.  Under  these  circum- 
stances, an  engagement  of  three  years  is  con- 
sidered quite  short,  while  one  of  seven  is  rather  a 
long  one,  but  anything  between  the  two  belongs 
to  the  usual  order  of  things. 


CHAPTER  V 


LITERATURE 


IT  is  a  bright  summer  evening,  the  26th  of  July, 
and  the  streets  of  Stockholm  leading  out  to 
the  park  of  Djurgarden  are  crowded.  The  small 
steamers  cutting  across  the  harbour,  and  the 
tramcars  running  in  rapid  succession  along  Strand- 
vagen,  are  full;  the  "  taxometer  "  cabs  fly  past  at 
a  high  pace,  their  drivers  showing  a  not  disinter- 
ested concern  to  get  their  passengers  quickly  to 
their  destination;  cyclists,  men  and  women,  scud 
by  on  the  cycle  path  in  close  files,  while  the  side- 
walk along  the  houses  facing  the  sea  and  the 
avenue  of  trees  skirting  the  edge  of  the  water  are 
alive  with  gay  crowds.  All  Stockholm,  that  is, 
the  Stockholm  which  is  not  out  of  town  for  the 
summer,  at  chateau,  manor,  or  villa,  the  Stock- 
holm of  simple  and  hardworking  folk,  the  small 
functionary  and  employee,  the  shopkeeper,  the 
clerk  and  the  seamstress,  the  petit  bourgeois  and 
the  workman,  with  their  families,  women  in  gay 
summer  dress,  men  in  their  Sunday  turn-out,— 
these  are  all  moving  towards  the  park,  bent  on 


IXI 


H2  Swedish  Life 

an  evening's  amusement,  for  it  is  the  celebration 
of  a  national  high-day.  It  is  "  Bellman's  day  "; 
a  day  the  true  Stockholmer  never  forgets.  Hence 
the  crowds  which  are  gathering  round  the  poet's 
monument  in  the  centre  of  the  park  to  celebrate 
the  anniversary  of  his  birth  a  century  and  a  half 
ago. 

Bellman,  the  national  poet,  is  dear  to  the  heart 
of  the  Swede,  and  doubly  so  to  the  heart  of  the 
Stockholmer.  His  songs  are  as  household  words 
throughout  the  land.  To  the  Stockholm-born, 
they  speak  of  their  daily  life  and  surroundings,  of 
the  green  isles  and  the  shady  banks  of  the  Malar, 
the  flowery  woods  of  Haga,  the  smiling  park  of 
Djurgarden.  Burlesque  scenes  of  the  life  of  the 
people,  street  tragedies,  drinking  bouts,  and 
country-junketings;  broad  humour  and  nature's 
philosophy;  lively  fancies  and  exquisite  landscape 
painting, — such  are  the  themes  of  his  song,  which 
from  one  generation  to  another  has  held  the  heart 
of  the  people  spellbound.  Every  man,  woman, 
and  child  knows  his  favourite  ditties  by  heart, 
has  sung  or  hummed  them  in  moments  of  joy  or 
of  sorrow.  For  his  song  is  both  joyful  and  sad. 
His  joy  is  the  joy  of  the  simple-hearted,  his  glad- 
ness a  Dionysian  gladness,  the  very  enjoyment  of 
existence;  his  sadness,  that  of  sympathy  with 
suffering  humanity,  of  anguish  at  the  evanescence 
of  life  and  happiness.  His  fancy  oscillates  be- 
tween constant  extremes  and  ever-recurring  con- 
trasts.    It  makes  of  his  song,  as  Tegner  has  so 


Literature  113 

aptly  defined  it,  "a  sorrow  decked  in  roses." 
Bright,  gay,  enraptured,  full  of  sunshine  and 
glamour,  like  the  summer  day  around  Stockholm, 
it  is  traversed  by  a  strain  of  melancholy  like  a 
smile  through  tears,  the  laugh  which  conceals  a 
sob.  There  is  symbolism  and  there  is  parody  in  his 
rustic  figures,  but  they  are  so  living,  so  real,  they 
appeal  so  strongly  to  the  innermost  feelings,  that 
they  seem  the  embodiment  of  one's  thoughts. 
His  pictures  are  like  those  of  the  old  Dutch  paint- 
ers: every  trait  in  the  rustic  scene  tells  the  life- 
story  of  some  humble  existence. 

It  is  this  characteristic  which  has  made  the  poet 
appeal  so  powerfully  to  the  minds  of  the  people. 
He  seems  to  see  with  their  eyes  and  feel  with  their 
hearts,  and  to  have  experienced  all  the  vicissitudes 
of  their  own  life.  And  yet  he  eminently  reflects 
his  own  time,  the  gay,  the  light-hearted  Gustavian 
era,  with  its  classical  fancies  and  rococo  taste. 
Venus  and  Bacchus,  the  Nymphs  and  the  Dryads, 
Hebe  and  Amor  are  mixed  up  incongruously  with 
the  homely  scenes  of  Scandinavian  life.  His 
Dutch  pictures  assume  then  a  Watteau-like  colour- 
ing of  extraordinary  effect,  as  fancy  and  contrast 
enhance  the  sharp  outlines  of  his  figures  and  give 
their  vitality  still  greater  relief.  They  are  so  life- 
like and  so  various  that  the  whole  of  the  everyday 
life  of  Sweden,  and  more  especially  of  Stockholm, 
of  the  eighteenth  century  is  unrolled  before  our 
eyes.  As  a  writer  has  remarked,  if  every  other 
book  descriptive  of  the  period  were  to  fail,  his 


ii4  Swedish  Life 

verses  would  suffice  to  inform  us  how  the  middle 
classes  then  lived,  thought,  and  felt.1 

Around  the  poet's  monument  —  his  bust  in 
bronze  on  a  white  marble  column — at  Bellmansro 
(Bellman's  Peace)  in  the  park  are  now  gathered, 
as  they  have  gathered  on  this  day  of  the  year 
since  the  monument  was  raised  in  the  early  days 
of  the  dynasty,  the  crowds  who  love  him  and  love 
his  song.  Every  heart  beats  as  the  Bellman  choirs 
burst  forth  in  turn  into  the  well-known  melodies, 
composed  or  adapted  by  the  poet  himself  to  his 
words,  and  sung  by  him  to  the  accompaniment  of 
his  lute.  And  song  alternates  with  enthusiastic 
orations,  addressed  to  the  crowd  by  improvised 
orators,  teeming  with  quotations  of  well-known 
lines.  It  is  an  orgy  of  Bellman's  verse,  such  as 
the  Stockholmer  specially  delights  in.  Bellman's 
songs  generally  form  a  sequence,  a  continuous 
chain  of  lyrical  romance.  His  Fredmart  s  Epistles 
are  a  sort  of  epic  cycle  of  lyrics.  This  is  a  form 
often  adopted  by  Swedish  poets.  We  find  it  in 
Tegner's  Frilkiof's  Saga,  in  Runeberg's  Sayings 
of  Sergeant  Stal  (Fdnrik  Stals  Sagner)  ;  in  a  cer- 
tain sense  also  in  Snoilsky's  Swedish  Portraits 
(Svenska  Bi/der),  although  there  it  is  the  Swedish 
people  whose  adventures,  in  a  sort  of  Legende  des 
Sieeles,  go  through  the  whole  cycle.  It  is  a  ques- 
tion, however,  whether  even  by  these  master 
singers,  in  their  more  elaborate  conceptions  and 
genial  flights  of  poetry,   Bellman  has  ever  been 

1  O.  Levertin,  Kontur  till  en  Bellman  karaktaristik. 


Literature  1 1 5 

surpassed.  In  lyric  power  and  vivid  realism,  his 
popular  ditties  are  unrivalled. 

The  next  to  incarnate  the  genius  of  the  Scandi- 
navian race  was  Tegner.  His  love  of  brave  deeds 
and  reckless  adventure,  and  his  exaltation  of 
the  man  of  action,  above  the  man  of  thought  are 
typical.  His  heroes,  fair-haired  and  blue-eyed, 
stalwart  and  vigorous,  relying  on  strength  and 
longing  for  adventure,  tender-hearted  and  con- 
templative, when  not  aroused  to  violent  action 
and  bent  on  deeds  of  valour,  personify  the  national 
ideal.  His  whole  vision  of  life  is  Scandinavian, 
bright  and  vivid,  with  a  tinge  of  melancholy. 
Tegner  was,  with  Geijer  and  Ling,  the  first  to 
adopt  national  subjects,  to  use  the  Scandinavian 
myths  and  folk-lore  in  their  poetry,  in  opposition 
to  the  classical  themes  and  the  Hellenic  mytho- 
logy, until  then  exclusively  in  vogue  in  the  poet- 
ical field. 

A  reaction  had  begun  in  Swedish  letters  against 
the  academic  style  and  French  tastes  of  the  Gus- 
tavian  era.  The  movement  had  reached  Sweden 
from  Denmark,  but  originated  in  Germany,  where 
Goethe  and  Schiller,  Herder  and  Klopstock,  fol- 
lowed by  Fichte,  Korner,  and  Kleist  — all  the 
Sturm  und  Dra?ig  of  German  literature — were 
heralding  romanticism.  Inspired  by  them,  Atter- 
bom,  a  poet  then  rising  to  fame,  had  introduced 
romanticism  in  Sweden  and  founded  the  school  of 
the  "Phosphorists"— named  after  the  Phosphorus, 
the  paper  he  wrote  in — to  carry  on  the  war  with 


n6  Swedish  Life 

the  academicians  who  occupied  Parnassus,  and 
were  accused  of  having  reduced  poetry  to  an  ab- 
stract formalism.  Thorild  had  already  opened 
this  campaign  towards  the  end  of  the  Gustavian 
period,  under  the  influence  of  Rousseau's  natural- 
ism and  the  liberalism  of  the  Sturm  und  Drang 
writers.  Franzen  and  Wallin,  both  poets  of  re- 
nown, had  been  detached  from  the  philosophy  of 
the  academicians  by  their  religious  feeling;  Stag- 
nelius,  whose  muse  had  also  been  Parnassian,  by 
his  gnosticism  and  mysticism.  The  time  was  ripe 
for  a  reform.  Geijer  was  a  romantic  by  nature, 
in  politics  as  well  as  in  literature,  but  he  was 
above  all  an  ardent  Scandinavian,  opposed  to 
exotics,  and  passionately  devoted  to  the  great 
traditions  of  the  past,  a  hero- worshipper,  an  en- 
thusiast, and  a  Goth.  The  Goths  were  the  mem- 
bers of  a  society  formed  to  revive  the  old  national 
manners  and  customs,  the  freedom  of  the  age  of 
the  Vikings,  and  the  ardour  of  the  heroes  of  Wal- 
halla.  Their  organ  was  the  Idun,  an  exclusively 
literary  publication.  In  a  letter  dated  March  7, 
181 1,  written  by  Geijer,  from  Stockholm,  to  his 
fia?icee,  then  living  in  the  country,  he  says:  "We 
have  formed  a  society  which  meets  nearly  daily. 
We  talk,  smoke,  and  read  together  about  Gothic 
Viking  deeds.  We  call  each  other  by  Gothic 
names,  and  live  in  the  past."  And  Anna-L,isa, 
his  future  wife,  writing  to  a  friend,  says:  "My 
fiance  has  become  a  Goth;  instead  of  loving  me 
he  is  in  love  with  Valkyries  and  shield-bearing 


Literature  1 1 7 

maidens,  drinks  out  of  Viking  horns,  and  carries 
out  Viking  expeditions — to  the  nearest  tavern. 
He.  writes  poems  which  must  not  be  read  in  the 
dark,  they  are  so  full  of  murder  and  deeds  of 
slaughter."  ' 

Ling,  who  also  belonged  to  this  society,  was  a 
fervent  admirer  of  the  Eddas  and  Sagas,  of  the 
Scandinavian  myths  and  folk-lore.  Tegner,  de- 
spite his  classical  education  and  Hellenic  turn  of 
mind,  was  an  ardent  Norseman  in  feeling  and  in- 
stinct. "Go  to  Greece  for  beauty  of  form,"  he 
would  say,  ' '  but  to  the  North  for  depth  of  feeling 
and  thought."  He  scorned  alike  the  metaphysi- 
cal subtleties  of  French  philosophy  and  the  moon- 
shine heroics  of  German  romanticism.  But  he 
was  at  one  with  Geijer  and  lying  in  the  desire  to  re- 
vive the  national  ideals  and  to  make  Scandi- 
navian heroes  and  myths  the  subjects  of  poetry. 

The  result  of  the  movement  was  Frii/iio/'s 
Saga,  Geijer's  Viking,  and  Ling's  heavy  epics  of 
Walhalla  warriors.  But  Geijer  and  Ling  alone 
had  followed  out  the  theory  in  all  its  conse- 
quences. Their  heroes  were  simply  Eddie,  of 
their  time,  in  spirit  and  in  thought.  Ling's 
realism  went  so  far  that  his  Northern  gods  and 
warriors,  "everlastingly  killed  but  to  revive 
again,"  were  deemed  "pork-eating  and  mead- 
drinking  yokels."  They  were  soon  forgotten, 
and  Ling  himself  is  best  known  as  the  inventor 

1  Nils  Erdmann,  Erik  G.  Geijer. 


n8  Swedish  Life 

of  gymnastic  exercises  on  scientific  principles,  an 
art  now  practised  all  the  world  over  as  "  Swedish 
gymnastics."  Geijer,  whose  Viking  gave  a  pure 
and  true  picture  of  Viking  life  seen  in  its  own 
light,  was  himself  disappointed.  He  abandoned 
poetry  and  took  to  history,  though  Tegner  says 
of  him  that  if  he  had  devoted  himself  to  poetry, 
he  would  have  surpassed  all  his  contemporaries. 
As  historian  he  rose  to  the  highest  rank;  and  he 
is  perhaps  the  greatest  historian  Sweden  has 
produced. 

Tegner  had  modernised  his  hero  and  heroine  in 
Frithiofs  Saga.  He  gave  them  Viking  garbs 
and  surroundings,  but  modern  thoughts  and 
sentiments.  By  the  more  copious  development 
of  the  inner  life,  and  by  placing  woman  on  an 
equality  with  man,  love  had  received  a  higher 
meaning,  and  his  poetry  unfolded  inspirations 
unknown  to  the  ancient  world,  such  as  melan- 
choly and  the  love  of  nature.  He  did  no  more 
than  Tennyson  did  later  in  making  of  King 
Arthur  the  type  of  an  English  gentleman.  Frith- 
iof  and  Ingeborg  were  representatives  of  the 
national  ideal.  The  success  of  his  poem  was  im- 
mense. It  had  a  lyrical  intensity  which  set  the 
Scandinavian  mind  vibrating.  Unmindful  of  the 
anachronism,  youth  gloried  in  the  noble  disinter- 
estedness of  Frithiof,  in  his  generosity  to  his 
rival,  his  melancholy  philosophising,  and  his 
high-minded  love,  as  well  as  in  his  daring  and 
his  love  of  adventure.     Manly  breasts  heaved  in 


Literature  119 

sympathy  with  him,  and  women's  tears  flowed  at 
the  story  of  Ingeborg' s  love.  As  the  poet  Snoilsky 
has  said, 

"  From  the  highest  to  the  lowest  throughout  the  land 
The  poet  had  created  a  bond  of  union. 
In  every  home,  within  every  school  door, 
His  verses  were  read  and  conned  and  loved, 
And  Sweden's  youth  felt  its  cheek  glow 
At  Frithiot's  courage  and  manly  mood. 
While  Ingeborg's  love  to  the  maiden's  dream 
Gave  life  and  thoughts  to  her  weaving  and  sewing." 

In  his  Children  of  the  Lord1  s  Supper,  Tegner 
conveyed  a  true  image  of  Sweden's  religious  life. 
The  scene  in  the  country  church,  decked  out  with 
flowers  and  evergreens  for  the  solemn  ceremony, 
the  rustic  boys  and  girls  bowing  and  curtseying 
as  they  make  their  responses  before  the  assembled 
congregation,  and  the  attitude  and  words  of  the 
patriarchal  pastor  are  all  true  to  life.  The  some- 
what declamatory  tone  of  the  oration  is  not  less 
consistent  with  the  character  of  the  rural  parson, 
the  trend  of  Swedish  religious  thought,  and  the 
solemnity  associated  with  these  occasions. 

In  the  poetic  tale  of  Axel,  Tegner  sought  to 
picture  the  romantic  and  warlike  adventures  of 
the  Swedes  under  Charles  XII.  It  draws  more 
freely  on  the  imagination,  and  often  makes  a  hard 
demand  on  the  credulity  of  the  reader.  It  scorns 
what  the  French  call  la  verite  qui  est  le  vraisembla- 
ble.     It  glories  in  the  Byrouic  exaltation  of  love 


120  Swedish  Life 

above  all  adverse  and  extraneous  circumstances. 
Such  is  the  love  of  the  young  Russian  maiden  for 
the  Swedish  officer.  She  follows  him  to  the  war 
in  male  attire  and  dies  on  the  battlefield,  thereby 
freeing  him  to  return  to  his  Swedish  early  love. 
Barring  the  Byronic  scepticism  and  distrust,  the 
poem  is  of  the  nature  of  L,ara  and  the  Corsair.  It 
has  a  deep  personal  note  in  it  withal  which  strikes 
the  emotional  chord  and  rouses  feeling;  it  is  also 
endowed  with  a  lucidity  of  thought  and  a  bril- 
liancy of  diction  which  carry  the  reader  away  and 
prevent  too  close  a  scrutiny  of  its  logic. 

There  is  an  overflow  of  imagery  in  Tegner' s 
poetry  which  is  Ossian-like.  One  simile  gives 
birth  to  another  in  such  swift  succession  that  it 
made  the  Phosphorists,  his  opponents,  liken  his 
verses  to  floating  icebergs,  sparkling  in  the  sun, 
and  projecting  so  powerful  a  glitter  that  the  gazer 
is  blinded  and  seized  with  a  shiver.  It  is  the 
poet's  vividness  of  imagination  raised  to  a  fever 
heat,  as  the  modern  critic  Brandes  more  justly 
calls  it,  flowing  like  an  all-powerful  torrent  and 
sweeping  everything  before  it.  It  reflects  the  in- 
ward glow  of  the  poet's  soul,  nurtured  alike  in  the 
Northern  love  of  nature  and  the  Hellenic  passion 
for  beauty.1 

It  was  with  his  patriotic  war-songs,  however, 
that  Tegner  roused  the  greatest  enthusiasm.  His 
Svea,  his  dithyrambic  declamation,  King  Charles 

1  Nils  Erdmann,  Essais  Tegner. 


Literature  i 2 1 

the  Young  Hero,  and  his  Scanean  Reserves  sent  a 
thrill  through  old  and  young.  When  Svea  was 
read  at  the  Swedish  Academy,  which  awarded 
the  poem  its  gold  medal,  the  friends  and  opponents 
of  Tegner  alike  were  moved  to  undisguised  ad- 
miration. In  breadth  and  intrinsic  power,  and  in 
the  beauty  of  its  rhythm,  which  seems  to  echo  the 
clash  of  arms  and  the  marching  of  masses,  this 
poem  is  unequalled  in  Swedish  literature.  Teg- 
ner's  name  soon  became  known  far  beyond  the 
limits  of  the  lauds  where  his  language  is  under- 
stood. His  works  were  translated  into  almost  all 
modern  tongues,  so  that  some  fifty  different 
translations  of  the  whole  or  parts  of  his  poems 
now  exist  in  eleven  European  languages.  Be- 
sides the  poem  of  Tegner  rendered  by  Longfellow, 
several  translations  of  his  works,  more  or  less 
good,  exist  in  English. 

A  new  feature  was  introduced  into  Swedish 
poetry  by  Ruueberg.  Although  born  of  Swedish 
parents,  he  was  brought  up  in  Finland,  his  mind 
being  nurtured  in  the  traditions  and  the  mixed 
racial  influences  of  his  new  fatherland.  Thus  he 
breathed  a  new  spirit,  and  a  new  inspiration, 
drawn  from  the  realities  of  life,  into  poetical 
fiction.  He  was  a  realist  in  the  best  sense  of  that 
much  misused  word.  He  sought  his  ideals  in 
life,  instead  of  outside  of  it  and  above  it  in  im- 
aginary creations.  He  saw  nature  such  as  it  is, 
with  all  its  faults  and  sublimities,  and,  loving  it 
with  a  true  poet's  devotion,  he  painted  it  simply 


122  Swedish  Life 

and  faithfully,  without  aiming  at  ennobling  it, 
but  seeking  and  finding  what  there  is  of  native 
dignity  in  its  humblest  expressions.1  In  his 
lyrical  poem,  The  Sayings  of  Sergeant  Stal,  he 
portrayed  incidents  of  the  wars  of  Finland  fighting 
by  the  side  of  Sweden  in  1809,  when  the  country 
was  conquered  by  Russia.  It  was  a  series  of  war 
pictures,  a  collection  of  hero  types,  painted  in 
living  colours,  and  breathing  the  most  ardent 
patriotism.  Simple  tales  told  by  a  sergeant  of  his 
recollections  of  the  war,  they  deal  with  real  per- 
sonages, most  of  them  drawn  from  the  humblest 
stations  in  life,  described  just  as  they  really  lived 
and  spoke  and  acted.  Yet  throughout  the  story 
of  their  simple  acts  and  thoughts  there  swept  a 
breeze  which  kindled  the  blood,  roused  the  emo- 
tions, and  fired  the  patriotic  feelings  of  Runeberg's 
contemporaries.  In  poetic  depth  and  beauty  of 
language,  as  in  style  and  conception,  and  in  their 
departure  from  all  the  prevailing  ideas  and  meth- 
ods of  romanticism,  these  lyric  tales  were  a  reve- 
lation. They  classed  their  author  at  once  as  in 
the  line  of  true-born  poets.  The  works  of  Rune- 
berg,  although  properly  belonging  to  the  literature 
of  a  country  politically  no  longer  one  with  Sweden, 
have,  from  the  nature  of  their  subjects  and  the 
identity  of  languages,  always  been  looked  upon 
in  Sweden  as  common  property,  and  they  have 
certainly  exercised  a  powerful  influence  on  Swed- 

1  C.  R.  Nyblom,  Lefnadsteckning  :  Runebergs  Samlade 
Skrifter. 


Literature  123 

ish  thought  and  letters.  Some  of  his  songs,  set  to 
music,  are  to  this  day  sung  as  national  anthems. 

The  same  may  be  said  of  another  Finnish 
writer,  Topelius,  whose  military  tales,  The  Field 
Surgeon's  Narrative,  became,  among  Scandi- 
navian youth,  a  sort  of  Robinson  Crusoe  of  military 
adventure.  There  is  no  boy  who  has  not  pored 
over  them,  and  felt  his  spirit  kindled  by  them. 

The  last  champion  of  dying  romanticism  was  a 
sort  of  universal  genius,  eccentric,  bizarre,  un- 
equal, a  spirit  out  of  harmony  with  itself,  but 
gifted  with  the  most  wonderful  imagination  and 
power,  K.  J.  L,.  Almquist.  His  life  was  as 
checkered  as  his  writings  were  various.  In  turn 
a  clergyman,  a  schoolmaster,  a  journalist,  and  an 
exile,  he  has  written  volumes  on  almost  every 
conceivable  subject,  from  fiction,  poetry,  and 
history,  to  lexicography,  pedagogy,  and  mathe- 
matics. His  stories,  published  in  two  series, 
under  the  common  title  of  The  Book  of  the  Hedge- 
rose,  show  powers  of  conception,  imagination,  and 
description  such  as  are  only  to  be  found  in  Edgar 
Allan  Poe.  His  was  an  essentially  revolutionary 
temperament.  He  disdained  all  authority,  and 
cavilled  at  all  moral  restraints.  He  was  in  con- 
stant rebellion  against  society,  its  accepted  laws 
and  precepts,  and  vented  his  moral  scepticism  in 
bitter  sarcasm  and  cutting  paradoxes.  "  But  two 
things  are  white  in  this  world,"  he  would  say, 
"innocence  and  arsenic."  The  coupling  of  the 
two,  however,  nearly  proved  fatal  to  him.     He 


124  Swedish  Life 

was  involved  in  a  mysterious  affair  of  poisoning, 
in  which  the  victim  was  a  dunning  creditor.  He 
was  suspected  of  having  given  him  arsenic  by  way 
of  ridding  himself  of  the  debt  which  he  could  not 
pay.  No  proof  of  the  fact  could  be  adduced,  and 
the  crime  was  never  brought  home  to  him;  but 
public  opinion  was  against  him,  and  fearing  or 
distrusting  the  justice  of  his  country,  he  fled  from 
it  before  the  case  was  tried.  He  wandered  over 
Europe  and  America,  trying  his  hand  at  every- 
thing, and  died,  a  literary  wreck,  in  Germany, 
longing  and  yet  not  daring  to  return  to  his  coun- 
try. Lately  the  Society  of  Authors  in  Stockholm, 
judging  that  his  crime  was  "  not  proven,"  while 
his  literary  merits  were  great  beyond  all  doubt, 
undertook  the  rehabilitation  of  his  memory.  His 
remains  were  brought  back  from  Lubeck,  and 
buried  in  Stockholm  with  ' '  literary  ' '  honours, 
among  others  a  remarkable  oration  delivered  on 
his  grave  by  Verner  von  Heidenstam,  in  which 
he  was  styled  a  martyr  in  the  great  cause  of  the 
emancipation  of  thought.  Whatever  may  be 
thought  of  his  moral  character,  Almquist  was  a 
great  thinker  and  a  wonderfully  versatile  writer. 
The  last  of  the  romantics,  he  has  been  called  a 
realist,  a  psychologist,  and  a  symbolist,  and  he 
was  certainly  something  of  all  these,  half  a  cen- 
tury before  the  terms  became  battle-cries  in  litera- 
ture, and  came  to  designate  literary  schools.  One 
critic  has  made  him  out  to  have  been  a  sort  of 
forerunner  of  Ibsen,  while  another  calls  him  the 


Literature  125 

most  modern  of  classics.  His  genius  placed  him 
in  advance  of  his  age  in  most  things.  He  was 
the  first  in  the  list  of  those  Scandinavian  revolu- 
tionists who  have  laid  out  new  landmarks  in  the 
field  of  thought,  and  introduced  new  methods  in 
fiction  and  the  drama. 

Liberalism,  which  spread  like  wildfire  over 
Europe  after  its  outbreak  in  the  July  Revolution 
in  France,  reached  Sweden  soon  after.  It  was 
represented  in  literature  by  such  men  as  Sturzen- 
Becker,  Wetterbergh,  and  Strandberg,  writing 
under  the  names  of  Orvar  Odd,  Uncle  Adam,  and 
Talis-Qualis;  Blanche,  who  wrote  stirring  novels 
in  the  style  of  Eugene  Sue;  Hjerta,  and  the  staff 
of  the  newly  founded  Aftonbladet,  who  were  revo- 
lutionising the  Press.  The  Press  was  beginning 
to  enlist  the  highest  literary  capacities  of  the 
country,  and  gradually  becoming  what  it  is,  a 
purveyor  not  only  of  news  but  of  thought,  and  a 
leader  of  opinion  in  literature  and  art,  in  science 
and  philosophy.  In  poetry,  liberalism  found  its 
echo  in  the  verses  of  Malmstrom,  Nybom,  Sehl- 
stedt.  In  fiction,  its  banner  was  carried  by  three 
women,  two  of  whom,  at  least,  are  well  known  in 
England — Frederika  Bremer,  whose  novels  por- 
trayed the  home  life  of  the  middle  class,  Emelie 
Carlen,  who  idealised  the  fishermen  and  sea-faring 
folk  of  the  West  Coast,  and  Sophie  von  Knorring, 
who  gave  rather  stilted  descriptions  of  life  in  aris- 
tocratic circles.  All  three  were  very  productive; 
and  their  novels  count  by  dozens.     Yet  they  failed 


126  Swedish  Life 

to  sustain  the  reputations  their  first  works  had 
won  for  them.  Frederika  Bremer  became  an 
ardent  champion  of  woman's  emancipation,  and 
her  later  works,  written  with  a  purpose,  lost  fresh- 
ness and  reality,  becoming  sentimental  and  polem- 
ical, and  degenerated  in  literary  value.  Her  two 
sister  novelists  simply  wrote  themselves  out,  and 
ended  with  more  or  less  mechanical  productions. 
Their  influence  on  literature  was  consequently 
less  effective  than  on  the  home  circle,  where  their 
moral  influence  has  been  great.  In  the  impetus 
she  gave  to  the  movement  for  raising  the  legal 
and  social  status  of  woman,  Frederika  Bremer's 
influence  has  been  beneficial  and  lasting.  The 
creation  of  the  Frederika  Bremer  Union,  to  carry 
on  her  work  in  the  cause  of  women,  has  done  good 
service;  it  affords  active  protection  and  encourage- 
ment to  women  struggling  independently  in  the 
battle  of  life,  and  endeavours  to  raise  the  standard 
of  woman's  work  and  wages.  Frederika  Bremer's 
works,  translated  into  most  languages,  did  as 
much  to  make  the  Swedish  name  known  abroad 
as  those  of  Tegner  himself. 

Idealism,  pure,  elevated,  refined,  free  from  all 
debasing  influences,  made  its  appearance  with  the 
poems  of  Rydberg,  Snoilsky,  and  Wirsen.  Ryd- 
berg,  a  naesthetical  writer  of  depth  and  power, 
a  neo-Platonic  philosopher  and  humanitarian 
apostle,  made  himself  the  champion  of  a  religion 
of  love  and  good  deeds,  a  free,  undogmatic  Christ- 
ianity, open  to  all  the  currents  of  modern  thought, 


Literature  127 

following  the  spirit  and  rising  above  the  letter  of 
the  law.  He  delighted  in  showing  the  workings 
of  idealism  and  unprejudiced  inquiry  in  older 
civilisations,  before  they  were  superseded  by 
Christianity,  viz.,  in  expiring  Hellenism,  in  his 
romance  The  Last  Athenian ;  and  in  heathen 
Scandinavia  in  The  Armour  Smith.  His  poetical 
creations,  which  belong  to  the  latter  part  of  his 
life,— for  his  fame  as  a  poet  came  after  he  had 
made  himself  a  name  as  a  prose  writer, — breathe 
the  same  elevated  spirit,  the  same  fearless  and 
searching  philosophy  as  his  earlier  aesthetical  es- 
says and  ethical  studies.  He  has  exercised  a  con- 
siderable influence  on  modern  Swedish  thought, 
which  takes  its  impress  from  Bostrom's  philo- 
sophical ideal  of  law  with  freedom  and  faith  with 
knowledge.  The  Upsala  Professor  Bostrom  gave 
vogue  to  a  philosophy  of  free-will  and  free  inquiry, 
of  individual  independence  under  the  law,  and 
scientific  research  in  undisturbed  faith,  which  has 
been  called  national  from  its  adaptability  to  the 
national  character.  It  appeals  strongly  to  the 
Swedish  love  of  freedom  and  learning,  of  fearless 
inquiry  combined  with  sincere  religious  feeling. 
It  is  a  synthesis  of  Swedish  society  and  the 
Swedish  mind,  as  another  University  Professor  of 
Philosophy,  Pontus  Wikner,  a  thinker  of  no  less 
originality  and  depth,  has  shown.  Victor  Ryd- 
berg's  writings  were  inspired  by  this  broad-minded 
Christianity,  this  belief  in  the  entire  compatibil- 
ity of  science  and  faith.      He  was,  moreover,  a 


128  Swedish  Life 

charmer  in  the  use  of  words,  a  master  in  elevating 
language  to  a  fine  art. 

Snoilsky,  a  lyric  poet  of  brilliant  parts  and 
great  purity  of  form,  has  produced  some  of  the 
most  delicately  chiselled  lyrics  which  are  to  be 
found  in  the  Swedish  language.  His  Swedish 
Portraits  are  exquisite  cameos  of  Swedish  history. 
Among  them  Old  King  Gbsta,  which  shows  the 
life-work  ofGustavus  Vasa,  who  "built  up  Sweden 
from  groundwork  to  summit ' ' ;  Sten bock' s  Courier, 
in  which  throbs  the  heart  of  the  Sweden  of  Charles 
XII.;  Liitzen  and  Augsburg,  reflecting  the  hero- 
ism and  the  renown  ofGustavus  Adolphus,  may  be 
mentioned  as  samples  of  the  poet's  power  of  evok- 
ing the  spirit  of  a  people  and  a  period  in  the  living 
picture  of  historical  incident.  In  others,  the  poet 
shows  a  tender,  contemplative  nature,  and  a  deep 
and  noble  sympathy  for  the  hard  lot  of  the  poor 
and  humble.  Every  one  is  a  gem  of  the  purest 
water,  revealing  in  the  writer  an  elevated  and 
highly  refined  poetic  nature,  a  perfect  mastery  of 
poetic  form  and  artistic  elegance.  Count  Snoilsky, 
who  was  a  member  of  the  Swedish  Academy,  oc- 
cupied a  high  post  as  head  of  the  Royal  Library 
in  Stockholm.  His  recent  death  was  looked 
upon  all  over  the  country  as  a  national  loss. 

In  C.  D.  af  Wirsen's  lyrics  the  religious  element 
dominates.  Delicate  pictures  of  Swedish  life  and 
Northern  scenery,  deep  reflections  on  the  ethical 
problems  of  the  day,  the  religious  teaching  of  his- 
tory and  the  vicissitudes  of  humanity,  are  the 


Literature  129 

usual  themes  of  his  muse.  Mr.  af  Wirsen,  who 
holds  the  post  of  Secretary  of  the  Swedish  Acad- 
emy, is  also  a  fine  orator  and  a  clever  writer  for 
the  Press. 

A  few  years  after  the  Franco- German  War, 
naturalism,  which  had  been  born  in  France  with 
the  works  of  Zola  and  his  school  and  thence 
spread  over  Europe,  reached  Sweden,  and  the 
struggle  which  raged  around  it  wherever  it  went 
burst  out  with  no  less  fury  in  the  North.  Its 
principal  champion  in  Sweden  was  Strindberg,  a 
writer  of  undoubted  originality  and  power,  who 
has  in  more  ways  than  one  exercised  a  marked 
influence  on  the  literary  development  of  his  coun- 
try. The  school  soon  counted  many  able  adepts. 
Such  were  G.  af  Geijerstam,  a  novelist  and  dra- 
matic author  of  talent,  Anne  Charlotte  Leffler, 
and  Victoria  Benedictsson  (Ernst  Ahlgren),  who 
both  wrote  with  masculine  force  and  independence 
of  character,  and  others  who  vied  in  propagating 
the  new  theories.  Swedish  naturalism  was  not, 
however,  a  mere  copy  of  the  French,  but  had  a 
character  of  its  own.  It  did  not  confine  itself  to 
painting  a  Corner  of  Nature  and  cultivating  art 
for  art's  sake — V art  pour  Vart.  With  it,  reality 
and  form  were  not  everything.  It  had  a  mission 
and  was  combative.  It  aimed  at  revolutionising 
thought  and  destroying  conventional  bonds.  Its 
one  great  dogma  was  doubt;  it  was  penetrated 
with  that  sceptical  fervour  which  Taine  calls 
Vorgeuil  iconoclaste  dont  s 'enivre  le  phyrrhonisme. 


i3°  Swedish  Life 

Yet  while  its  scepticism  was  above  everything 
revolutionary,  it  was  sincere.  It  was  Strindberg 
who  opened  the  campaign  with  his  social  novel, 
The  Red  Room,  followed  by  his  biographical  con- 
fessions ct,  la  Rousseau  in  The  Maid  Serva?ifs 
Son.  He  carried  the  system  into  politics  and  re- 
ligion in  his  drama  on  the  Reformation,  Master 
O/of,  into  conjugal  relations  in  Married,  and  into 
conjugal  rights  in  Father,  and  finally  into  woman's 
sphere  in  the  extraordinary  study  of  woman's 
passions  and  sensuality,  Miss  Julia.  Gustave  af 
Geijerstam  took  up  the  same  war-cry  in  his  novel 
on  university  and  clerical  life,  Erik  Granne,  his 
studies  on  crime,  The  Justice's  Tales,  and  others. 
He  has  remained  faithful  to  it  throughout  his 
literary  career,  and  he  has  produced  a  great  deal, 
both  in  fiction  and  in  the  drama.  His  latest 
works,  however,  show  a  disposition  to  an  ab- 
straction and  a  mysticism,  in  the  midst  of  their 
studied  realism  and  uncompromising  dissection, 
which  were  foreign  to  his  early  manner.  The  two 
women  authors  mentioned,  also  did  valiant  service 
to  the  cause  while  in  the  field,  but  their  literary 
career  was  not  of  long  duration.  Anne  Charlotte 
L,effler  married  an  Italian  duke  and  left  the  coun- 
try, and  Victoria  Benedictsson  died  young,  under 
somewhat  tragic  circumstances. 

Naturalism  did  not  hold  its  sway  very  long. 
Verner  von  Heidenstam  and  Oscar  Levertin,  who 
had  suddenly  revealed  themselves  poets  of  great 
promise,  were  the  first  to  raise  their  voices  against 


Literature  131 

its  tenets.  Verner  von  Heidenstam  proclaimed 
the  Renaissance  doctrine  of  the  "  joy  of  life."  In 
brilliant  verses,  endowed  with  a  rare  richness  alike 
of  thought  and  colouring,  he  preached  the  ideas 
of  Hellenic  epicurism  and  Oriental  quietism. 
Love  of  the  beautiful  in  all  its  forms,  ideal  joys 
and  ideal  contentment,  were  the  real  happiness  of 
life,  which  consists  in  imagining  one's  self  happy. 
Oscar  L,evertin  believed  in  the  supremacy  of  in- 
tellect. With  wealth  of  imagery  and  the  charm 
of  great  erudition  in  troubadour  lore  and  pre- 
Raphaelite  art,  he  preached  a  doctrine  of  aesthetic 
sensualism.  In  a  pamphlet  signed  by  them  both, 
Pepita's  Wedding,  they  threw  their  gauntlet  at 
naturalism,  ridiculing  and  criticising  its  tendency 
and  its  precepts,  its  absurdities  and  aesthetic 
heresies,  and  its  deadening  effects  on  imagination 
and  art.  It  was  a  blow  from  which  it  never 
recovered . 

The  most  ardent  adepts  of  naturalism  were, 
moreover,  already  deserting  it.  Strindberg  him- 
self, the  leader,  had  commenced  that  evolution 
which,  through  successive  stages,  has  made  of  the 
great  sceptical  pessimist  and  the  ardent  revolu- 
tionist of  yore  the  mystic  and  spiritualistic  writer 
of  to-day.  Influenced  by  Nietzsche  he  first  turned 
intellectual  aristocrat,  worshipped  Nietzsche's 
Uber  Mensck,  and  declared  war  against  woman. 
Several  of  his  works  bearing  the  impress  of  this 
state  of  mind  belong  to  the  first  stage  of  his  evo- 
lution.    His  violent  hatred  of  woman  led  him  into 


i32  Swedish  Life 

errors  of  judgment  and  literary  taste,  such  as  his 
Confession  of  a  Madman,  and  other  productions  of 
a  similar  nature.  Then  came  his  To  Damascus, 
which  proclaimed  his  recantation  and  his  return, 
if  not  to  Christianity  and  religion,  at  least  to  a 
doctrine  of  sin  expiated  by  suffering.  Inferno 
and  Legends,  based  on  personal  experiences,  ex- 
patiated on  this  theory  with  a  wonderful  power  of 
psychological  analysis  and  of  descriptive  vivid- 
ness. In  his  historical  dramas, — Folkunga-Sagan, 
Gustavus-Vasa,  Erik  XIV.,  Gustavus  Adolphus 
and  Charles  XII, — which  certainly  do  not  lack 
dramatic  power  and  scenic  effect,  the  same  theme 
prevails:  suffering  the  expiation  of  sin  even  when 
vicariously  borne,  punishment  overtaking  the  sin- 
ner and  avenging  the  fault  in  its  most  unforeseen 
consequences. 

Verner  von  Heidenstam  is  now  foremost  among 
the  writers  of  his  country.  His  early  works, 
Endymion,  Hans  Alicnus,  and  others,  raised  him 
to  this  rank,  and  his  last  two  productions,  The 
Caro/ines  (the  companions  of  Charles  XII.)  and 
Saint  Brigitt  have  more  than  confirmed  it.  Hans 
Alienus  was,  like  Goethe's  Faust,  a  work  of  deep 
philosophical  research  into  the  problems  of  exist- 
ence, the  purpose  and  significance  of  life,  set  forth 
in  symbolical  images  and  explained  by  allegory. 
In  The  Carolines,  a  series  of  short  stories  connected 
by  the  red  thread  of  history  which  runs  through 
them,  he  gives  a  new  conception,  but  a  wonder- 
fully graphic  and  striking  one,  of  Charles  XII. 


Literature  133 

and  his  times.  It  is  an  epic,  and  yet  so  living  and 
so  human  a  picture  of  the  wild,  iron-souled,  quick- 
tempered hero,  whose  "eyes  flew  around  like  two 
searching  bees,"  and  whose  will  was  like  the  steel 
of  his  sword;  who  had  the  heart  of  a  lion  and  a 
"  woman's  hatred  for  women,"  but  for  whom  men 
shed  their  blood  freely;  who  "  never  grieved  over 
a  misfortune  longer  than  the  darkness  lasted," 
and  was  ' '  best  loved  by  those  who  tried  to  hate 
him."  His  pictures  are  drawn  by  a  master  hand, 
and  with  the  intuitive  colouring  of  genius.  Saint 
Brigitt,  Von  Heidenstam's  last  work,  carries  us 
back  to  mediaeval  Sweden.  Here,  too,  the  picture 
is  lifelike,  centred  round  the  struggle  of  a  high- 
minded  woman,  who  makes  everything  bend  to 
her  stern  rule  of  holiness,  her  thirst  for  sanctity, 
as  Charles  XII.  did  to  his  inexorable  policy  and 
thirst  for  dominion. 

Oscar  Levertin,  whose  pen  is  one  of  the  most 
brilliant,  has  of  late  years  devoted  himself  to 
studies  in  history,  literature,  and  art,  in  which  he 
has  acquired  the  reputation  of  a  Swedish  Ruskin. 
He  is  professor  of  the  history  of  art  at  the  High 
School  of  Stockholm,  and  his  lectures  are  as  much 
prized  as  his  clever  articles  in  the  Press  and 
periodicals.  Now  and  then,  however,  he  sends 
out  a  work  of  fiction,  in  his  own  peculiar  style  of 
profound  psychological  analysis,  or  a  book  of 
verses,  which  shows  that,  in  the  midst  of  his  more 
absorbing  studies,  his  hand  has  not  forgotten  its 
cunning  at  his  original  craft,  as  novelist  and  poet. 


134  Swedish  Life 

A  young  poet  of  great  vigour  and  originality  is 
Gustave  Froding.  There  is  much  in  his  verses 
that  reminds  one  of  the  peculiar  genius  of  Bell- 
man. It  is  a  modern  revival  of  the  national 
singer's  inimitable  humour,  vivacity,  and  fresh- 
ness, his  spontaneousness  and  his  power  of  evok- 
ing a  whole  scene  in  a  few  terse  lines.  He  has, 
perhaps,  less  of  the  genuine  gaiety  and  more  of 
the  secret  melancholy  of  the  popular  chansonnier 
of  the  Gustavian  era.  His  melancholy  partakes 
more  of  the  bitter  tone  of  modern  pessimism. 
Like  Bellman's,  his  muse  is  essentially  Scandi- 
navian and  characteristically  democratic,  appeal- 
ing especially  to  the  tastes  of  the  people. 

The  psychological  and  the  historical  novel,  the 
latter,  in  its  modern  conception,  akin  to  the  former, 
since  it  is  a  study  of  the  psychology  of  historical 
characters  and  an  historical  epoch,  is  the  form  of 
fiction  at  present  most  in  vogue.  It  is  in  this 
form  that  such  writers  as  Tor  Hedberg,  Per  Hall- 
strom,  and  Axel  L,undegard  have  made  their 
reputations.  For  Hedberg' s  romances  embody 
profound  analysis  of  the  inner  workings  of  the 
soul,  of  the  secret  motives  which,  more  or  less 
consciously,  determine  a  man's  acts.  In  this  line, 
he  ventures  on  the  most  difficult  psychological 
problems.  In  his  y?tdas,  a  scriptural  romance 
from  which  he  has  drawn  a  drama,  he  attempts 
to  solve  the  darkest  psychological  enigma  that  has 
puzzled  humanity,  viz.,  to  analyse  the  motives 
which  led  Judas  the  apostle  to  betray  his  Master 


Literature  135 

and  become  the  typical  traitor.  The  character  he 
draws  of  him  is  original  and  striking,  and  departs 
entirely  from  the  accepted  tradition.  But  bold  and 
subtle  as  the  theory  is,  it  is  far  from  convincing. 
His  Judas  is  a  dark,  brooding  spirit,  fierce  and  in- 
harmonious, divided  between  ecstatic  love  and 
admiration  of  his  Master  and  inward  irresistible 
forces  of  hatred  and  revolt:  a  double  nature, 
thirsting  for  freedom  and  love,  yet  predestined  to 
evil,  and  led  by  fearful  secret  impulses  to  the  ac- 
complishment of  his  destiny  and  the  fulfilment 
of  his  mission,  necessary  to  the  scheme  of  salva- 
tion. He  rushes  blindly  to  his  fate  while  strug- 
gling in  vain  to  escape  from  it.  But  in  the  very 
act  of  betrayal,  while  obeying  the  command, 
"  What  thou  doest,  do  quickly,"  his  better  nature 
triumphs  dimly  for  one  instant  and  he  falls  on  the 
neck  of  his  Master  and  embraces  Him.  It  is  the 
Judas  kiss  which  betrays  his  Lord.  The  last  look 
of  Jesus  showed  him,  however,  that  he  had  been 
understood  and — forgiven.  The  detestation  of 
humanity  to  the  end  of  the  world  will  be  his  ex- 
piation for  his  foul  act,  but  that  one  look  of  Jesus 
has  freed  him.     He  accepts  his  destiny. 

Per  Hallstrom  has  studied  in  Thanatos — a  series 
of  novelettes — the  different  aspects  of  death,  the 
impressions  produced  on  mankind  by  the  great 
consoler  and  universal  terroriser  of  humanity. 
Axel  Lundegard's  principal  work,  Strucnsee,  is 
styled  "  a  psychological  study  from  history."  It 
is  the  life  in  three  parts,  of  the  German  adventurer 


136  Swedish  Life 

who,  from  a  quack  doctor  at  Altona,  rose  to  be 
the  all-powerful  Minister  and  uncrowned  sover- 
eign of  Denmark,  the  unworthy  favourite  and  still 
uu worthier  rival  of  a  degenerate  monarch,  Christ- 
ian VII.,  and  the  faithless  lover  of  a  passionate 
Queen,  the  beautiful  and  unfortunate  Caroline 
Matilda  of  England,  sister  of  George  III.  It  is 
the  tragedy  of  their  love,  which  led  him  to  the 
scaffold  and  her  to  the  dungeons  of  the  fortress  of 
Kronborg;  the  picture  of  a  dissolute  Court  under 
a  weak  monarch,  morally  and  physically  decrepit, 
the  degenerate  scion  of  a  worn-out  race,  in  an 
epoch  of  upheaval  and  ferment,  of  new  ideas  and 
new  currents  of  liberty  sweeping  round  age- worn 
feudal  institutions;  the  story  of  a  wonderful  career, 
made  through  cleverness  and  bluster,  and  of  a 
remarkable  character,  moulded  by  Voltairean 
scepticism  and  Voltairean  ideals  of  liberty  and 
equality,  by  high  aspirations  and  very  low  morals, 
a  character  typical  of  the  genius  and  spirit  of  ad- 
venture of  the  eighteenth  century. 

Woman,  represented  by  writers  like  Ellen  Key, 
Selma  Lagerlof,  Sophie  Elkan,  Alfhild  Agrell, 
Hilma  Strandberg,  Anna  Wahlenberg,  Mathilda 
and  Anna  Roos,  holds  a  high  position  in  Swedish 
letters.  Ellen  Key  is  an  essayist  of  virile  power 
and  argumentative  breadth,  of  superior  intellect 
and  unfailing  erudition.  She  is  a  fearless  and 
uncompromising  champion  of  free  thought,  indi- 
vidualism, and  woman's  emancipation.  As  was 
said  of  Madame  de  Stael,  her  writings  are  "  the 


Literature  137 

most  masculine  production  of  the  faculties  of 
woman."  She  has  mastered  the  most  arduous 
philosophical  problems  and  handles  them  with 
ease  and  complacency,  and  has  all  a  high-minded 
woman's  feeling  for  human  suffering  and  social 
injustice.  Her  essays  and  lectures  on  social  sub- 
jects are  of  a  high  order,  and  her  influence  in 
learned  circles  is  considerable.  Selma  L,agerlof 
occupies  as  a  novelist  a  position  of  her  own.  Her 
style  and  her  manner  in  fiction  are  unique.  Sym- 
bolism and  allegory  are  blended  in  it  with  the 
most  realistic  pictures  of  everyday  life.  Her  poetic 
and  picturesque  way  of  depicting  the  humblest 
scenes  seems  to  make  each  point  a  moral  and 
teach  a  lesson.  She  thinks  in  parables  and  de- 
scribes realities,  and  the  realities  convey  the 
moral  teachings  of  parables.  With  something  of 
the  peculiar  power  of  George  Eliot  in  the  delinea- 
tion of  character,  she  makes  each  humble  life 
preach  some  great  moral  truth.  It  is  this  that 
gives  her  works  their  great  and  indescribable 
charm.  Her  last  work,  Jerusalevi,  is  one  of  ex- 
traordinary' fascination,  in  its  mixture  of  real- 
istic simplicity  and  dramatic  power,  in  the  deep 
philosophy  and  elevated  thought  underlying  its 
subtle  symbolism.  The  first  part,  "In  Dale- 
carlia,"  presents  a  striking  picture  of  peasant  life 
in  one  of  the  most  typical  provinces  of  Sweden, 
where  the  rustic  and  patriarchal  habits  of  a 
primitive  age  still  prevail,  where  the  people 
have   retained  much  of  their   originality,    their 


138  Swedish  Life 

spontaneousness,  and  their  earnestness  of  purpose. 
In  the  midst  of  an  almost  idyllic  picture  of  this 
humble  rustic  life,  painted  with  her  usual  mixture 
of  living  realism  and  parabolic  suggestiveness,  she 
gradually  evolves  a  powerful  and  moving  drama, 
in  showing  the  workings  of  religious  enthusiasm 
and  imaginative  impulses  in  the  minds  of  a  simple 
and  single-hearted  people,  the  craving  for  holi- 
ness and  outward  sanctification,  which  leads  them 
to  give  up  their  homes  and  their  fields  and  to 
emigrate  en  masse  to  Jerusalem,  to  work  out  their 
salvation  and  seek  "  the  ways  of  God."  The 
second  part  of  the  book,  "  In  the  Holy  Land," 
records  their  experiences  in  pursuing  this  ideal 
aim,  the  fantastic  colours  with  which  their  over- 
wrought imagination,  their  childlike  faith,  and 
their  singleness  of  heart  clothe  the  hard,  concrete 
facts  and  stern  realities  by  which  they  are  con- 
fronted, the  contrast  presented  by  their  simple 
conceptions  of  holiness  and  abnegation  with  the 
more  elaborate  ideals  of  other  peoples  and  races 
of  less  ingenuous  religious  impulses.  It  is  a 
wonderful  book,  which  has  created  quite  a  sensa- 
tion in  Sweden,  and  it  places  Selma  L,agerlof  quite 
among  the  foremost  writers  of  the  day. 

Among  other  writers  who  are  at  present  noted 
in  the  Swedish  world  of  letters  may  be  mentioned 
Axel  Klarfeldt,  Ossian  Nilsson,  Daniel  Fallstrom, 
lyrical  poets  ;  Gellerstedt,  a  poetical  miniature 
painter  in  words  ;  Melin  and  Ba&th,  who  have 
sung   of  the   coast-life   and   ancient   customs  of 


Literature  139 

Sweden;  Frans  Hedberg,  the  popular  dramatist; 
G.  Nordensvan,  essayist  and  art  critic,  as  well  as 
writer  of  fiction;  Molin,  Soderberg  and  Forsslund, 
novelists;  and  Hedenstjerna,  who,  under  the 
name  of  "  Sigurd,"  writes  popular  tales  which  are 
widely  appreciated.  Dahlgren  and  Eondeson  write 
very  amusing  peasant  stories,  reproducing  the 
local  dialects. 

In  general,  it  may  be  said  of  Swedish  writers 
that  they  have  a  high  idea  of  their  calling.  Few, 
if  any,  have  accepted  as  their  sole  function  the 
idealisation  of  form.  They  hold  mostly  that  the 
highest  aim  of  art  should  be  to  teach  and  elevate, 
to  destroy  prejudice  and  conventionality,  and  in- 
dicate, in  so  far  as  it  is  possible,  the  solution  of 
moral  problems,  not  in  any  return  to  the  barren 
wastes  of  speculation,  but  through  the  creative 
faculty  of  inspired  productiveness.  They  wish  to 
inculcate  action,  the  energy  that  is  born  of  enthu- 
siasm, the  chivalry  that  is  inspired  by  high  ideals 
and  unselfish  motives.  Their  productions  bear  in 
general  the  peculiar  stamp  of  the  Northern  poetical 
and  contemplative  nature  and  the  inborn  instinct 
of  individual  liberty.  Raised  thus  from  the  region 
of  mere  chronicles  of  human  passions,  of  woman's 
frailty  and  man's  baseness,  and  exercising  them- 
selves with  the  political,  social,  and  religious 
problems  of  the  day,  these  works  of  imagination 
have  become,  alongside  of  the  Press,  a  powerful 
factor  in  the  development  of  modern  thought. 


CHAPTER  VI 


EARLY  ART  AND  CULTURE 


WARFARE  and  agriculture  prevented  the 
Swedes,  during  the  earlier  periods  of  their 
history,  from  coming  much  into  contact  with  art. 
The  ever-recurring  foreign  wars  absorbed  the  vital 
resources  of  the  country,  while  the  effects  of  an 
almost  exclusively  agricultural  and  highly  de- 
centralised mode  of  life,  where  almost  every  home- 
stead, from  the  nobleman's  estate  to  the  peasant's 
farm,  formed  a  little  world  apart,  dispersed  the 
energies  of  the  nation,  and  prevented  the  forma- 
tion of  special  centres  of  intellectual  activity  in 
which  the  cultivation  of  art  could  find  an  adequate 
field  for  its  development.  All  attempts  at  art 
were  therefore  isolated,  individual,  and  fragmen- 
tary. Its  impulses  came  from  abroad,  and  its 
products  were  conscientious  imitations.  One 
looks  in  vain,  until  much  later  periods,  for  any 
signs  of  original  conception,  any  national  artistic 
tendencies,  capable  of  being  transmitted  from  one 
generation  to  another  and  bearing  a  distinctive 
national  character.1 

1  G.  Nordensvan,  Svensk  konst  och  Svenska  Konstndrer. 

140 


Early  Art  and  Culture         141 

The  Viking's  artistic  conceptions,  crude  as  they 
were,  belonged  to  himself,  were  evolved  from  his 
own  train  of  thought  and  reflected  the  inspira- 
tions of  his  own  surroundings.  In  forging  his 
weapons,  in  engraving  his  buckler  or  shield,  in 
decorating  his  house  or  his  ship,  the  Norse  war- 
rior showed  originality  and  a  distinctive  culture 
which  has  left  its  mark.  In  the  runes  and  sym- 
bolic figures  traced  on  the  Bauta  sten  raised  over 
his  fallen  companion,  to  commemorate  his  deeds 
of  valour,  he  held  up  to  admiration  ideals  of  his 
own.  With  Christianity,  however,  a  new  culture, 
born  of  far  different  races  and  climes,  was  brought 
into  the  Scandinavian  world,  grafting  on  its  time- 
worn  conceptions  the  new  ideals  of  a  more  spiritual 
faith  and  a  more  advanced  civilisation.  Native 
initiative  and  originality  were  submerged  in  for- 
eign modes  of  thought.  The  Church  now  domi- 
nated taste  and  feeling,  and  imposed  its  doctrines 
and  learning.  It  erected  stately  edifices  for  pub- 
lic worship,  and  decorated  them  with  the  symbols 
of  the  new  faith,  with  the  figures  of  the  crucified 
Saviour,  the  Virgin  Mother  and  Child,  the  Saints, 
Apostles,  and  Martyrs.  Over  the  dead,  it  raised 
monuments  emblematic  of  the  new  ideas  of  life 
and  eternity,  of  heaven  and  hell,  of  righteousness 
and  sin.  To  execute  these,  expert  artists  from 
abroad  had  to  be  employed.  The  native  ones 
could  only  be  their  humble  disciples,  treading 
warily  in  their  footsteps,  clever  imitators  of  foreign 
conceptions.     Rarely,  and  then  very  meekly  and 


142  Swedish  Life 

hesitatingly,  did  they  dare  to  give  these  concep- 
tions an  interpretation  of  their  own.  The  Virgin 
Mother  was  now  their  accepted  ideal  of  woman- 
hood and  motherly  tenderness;  it  were  desecration 
to  give  her  the  type  of  a  Northern  maiden.  St. 
George  fighting  the  dragon  had  become  the  ideal 
of  manly  valour,  but  he  had  nothing  of  a  Wal- 
halla  warrior. 

The  earliest  monuments  of  Sweden,  the  ca- 
thedral of  Lund,  which  dates  from  the  eleventh 
century,  most  of  the  churches  of  Gotland, 
the  great  mart  of  the  Baltic,  which  date  from 
the  twelfth  and  thirteenth,  the  heyday  of  its  com- 
mercial prosperity  as  the  centre  of  trade  be- 
tween Russia,  Germany,  and  the  North,  and  the 
cloister  church  of  Varnhem,  the  oldest  Bernardine 
convent  in  Westergotland,  belong  to  this  primi- 
tive period  and  bear  its  stamp.  They  are  of  the 
pure  Romanesque  style,  of  round  arch  and  severe 
outline,  reminding  one  of  Schelling's  definition  of 
architecture  as  "  frozen  music."  Saints,  angels, 
and  martyrs,  stiff  and  emaciated,  of  primitive 
Byzantine  drawing  and  chaste  uniform  colouring, 
decorated  their  altars;  naive  wood-carvings  of  the 
Apostles  supported  the  massive  pulpits. 

Then  came  the  Gothic  wave,  sweeping  over  the 
land  and  bringing  its  gables,  high-pointed  arches 
and  clustered  columns,  its  vaulted  halls,  its  moated 
castles  and  crenelated  walls.  It  is  seen  in  the 
cathedrals  of  L,inkoping  and  Skara,  the  convent 
church  of  St.  Brigitta  at  Vadstena,  the  mighty 


Early  Art  and  Culture         143 

stone  and  brick  pile  of  the  cathedral  of  Upsala, — 
although  this  has  been  so  many  times  burned  down 
and  restored,  and  finally  almost  entirely  rebuilt  in 
1S85-93,  that  very  little  of  its  original  design  is 
left, — and  many  of  the  oldest  noblemen's  chateaux, 
such  as  Wiik  in  Upland  and  Glimmingehus  in 
Skane. 

The  influence  of  the  Renaissance  only  reached 
Sweden  about  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, under  Gustavus  Vasa  and  his  sons.  Great 
changes  had  opened  the  doors  wide  for  its  recep- 
tion. The  Reformation,  and  Sweden's  indepen- 
dence under  a  new  dynasty,  had  set  aside  the 
power  of  the  Church  and  replaced  it  by  the  power 
of  the  King.  The  mediaeval  state  had  disappeared 
with  the  mediaeval  autocracy  of  the  priesthood 
and  the  nobility.  A  new  political  and  religious 
community  had  sprung  up,  based  on  the  national 
idea  and  the  new  conceptions  of  individual  liberty 
and  freedom  of  conscience.  The  regeneration  had 
sunk  deep  and  reached  the  people,  who  in  fighting 
for  national  independence  and  in  electing  their 
King  had  tasted  of  liberty  and  learned  their  power. 
The  confiscated  treasures  of  the  Church  created 
unwonted  sources  of  public  wealth.  The  building 
of  churches  and  cathedrals  was  replaced  by  the 
building  of  castles  and  palaces.  The  castle  of 
Calmar  and  the  old  palace  of  Stockholm  were  re- 
stored; Gripsholm  was  rebuilt,  the  castles  of 
Upsala  and  Wadstena  erected.  They  represent 
what  in  Sweden  is  known  as  the  Vasa  style   of 


H4  Swedish  Life 

architecture.  It  is  akin  to  that  of  the  Renais- 
sance. In  decorating  and  furnishing  these  crea- 
tions, simply  and  austerely  in  the  old  King's  days, 
lavishly  and  luxuriously  in  those  of  his  sons,  all 
the  art  of  the  Renaissance  was  laid  under  con- 
tribution. They  bear  to  this  day  traces  of  its  bril- 
liancy and  grace,  breathing  the  exuberance  of  life 
and  the  sunny  joy  fulness  that  the  Renaissance 
brought  with  it. 

Yet  it  was  at  best  but  art  at  second  hand  for 
the  Swedes.  Artists  from  abroad  had  again  been 
called  in  to  teach  it.  They  came  from  Germany 
and  the  Netherlands.  It  was  the  German  and 
Dutch  conception  of  the  Renaissance,  artistic  and 
glowing  no  doubt,  but  with  only  a  faint  reflex  of 
its  Italian  glow,  only  a  partial  echo  of  its  human- 
istic enthusiasm.  The  time  was  approaching, 
however,  when  the  Swedes  were  to  meet  it  at  the 
fountain  head,  were  to  receive  their  direct  and  im- 
mediate initiation  into  art.  If  war  and  desolation 
had  hitherto  estranged  the  Swedes  from  the  fine 
arts,  it  was  war  that  now  brought  them  into  con- 
tact with  these  arts  and  taught  them  their  value. 
The  Thirty  Years'  War  suddenly  made  them 
masters  of  the  finest  art  collections  of  Central 
Europe.  It  put  them  in  possession  of  the  mag- 
nificent picture  galleries,  all  the  artistic  treasures 
of  Southern  Germany,  in  which  they  had  but  to 
pick  and  choose.  And  they  helped  themselves 
royally  out  of  them !  The  Swedish  generals  sent 
home  shiploads  of  pictures  and  gems — such  was 


Early  Art  and  Culture         145 

the  fortune  of  war.  It  served,  moreover,  in  their 
eyes,  to  save  the  precious  spoils  from  falling  into 
less  appreciative  hands,  from  being  wantonly  de- 
stroyed. Tilly  wrecked  the  library  of  Heidelberg, 
using  the  valuable  manuscripts  as  litter  for  his 
horses.  De  la  Gardie  and  Banner  carefully  col- 
lected and  sent  home  to  Sweden  all  the  books  and 
manuscripts  they  could  lay  hands  on.  The  spoils 
of  the  Jesuit  College  of  Olmiitz  form  to  this  day 
the  most  valuable  part  of  the  University  Library 
at  Lund.  The  Codex  argentinus,  Ulfilas'  Gothic 
translation  of  the  Gospels,  written  in  the  begin- 
ning of  the  fourth  century  (a.d.  318),  and  other 
gems  of  the  library  of  Upsala,  were  taken  at 
Prague.  The  magnificent  art  collections  of  Skok- 
loster.1  among  which  is  the  silver  embossed  shield 
of  Benvenuto  Cellini,  one  of  his  chefs  d'ceuvre, 
worth  a  fortune  in  itself,  were  Marshal  Wrangel's 
share  of  the  spoils  of  that  town.  Queen  Chris- 
tina's famous  gallery  of  pictures,  considered  at  the 
time  one  of  the  choicest  in  Europe,  was,  in  great 
part,  composed  of  the  Correggios,  Titians,  and 
Paolo  Veroneses  which  her  cousin  Charles  Gus- 
tavus,  Palatine  Count  of  Zweibriicken,  brought 
back  from  the  war  and  presented  to  her  in  the 
hope  of  winning  her  hand  and  sharing  her  throne. 
She  refused  her  hand,  but  eventually  gave  him 
the  throne,  when  she  proclaimed  her  determina- 
tion not  to  marry,  had  her  cousin  elected  as  her 

1  See  Chapter  I.,  p.  11. 


H6  Swedish  Life 

heir,  then  abdicated,  and  left  the  country.  It  was 
thus  in  making  their  "  selections"  out  of  the  art 
treasures  of  Europe,  which  war  had  placed  at 
their  disposal,  that  the  Swedes  served  their  first 
apprenticeship  in  the  fine  arts.  They  learned  to 
appreciate  them,  to  discriminate  schools  and  the 
styles  of  the  old  masters,  and  developed  a  taste  for 
high  art  which  was  to  regenerate  their  country. 

On  their  return  home,  enriched  with  their  pre- 
cious spoils,  and  won  over  to  new  ideas  of  elegance 
and  luxury,  these  heroes  of  the  Thirty  Years' 
War  found  their  ancestral  castles  and  manors, 
built  in  view  of  defence  and  feudal  isolation,  too 
narrow  and  uncomfortable  for  their  newly  acquired 
habits  of  wealth  and  ostentation.  So  they  raised 
mighty  piles  all  over  the  country  in  which  to  in- 
stal  their  collections  and  display  their  refinement 
and  grandeur.  This  was  the  ckd/eau-build'mg 
epoch  of  Sweden.  Skokloster,  Tido,  Tecko, 
Ekolsund,  Eriksberg,1  Lofsta,  some  of  the  finest 
chateaux  of  Sweden,  date  from  it.  They  were 
mostly  designed  by  Tessin,  an  architect  of  Ger- 
man origin  who  had  studied  in  Italy,  and  who 
established  thereby  his  high  reputation.  He  is 
the  originator  of  Swedish  architecture.  His 
genius  created  what  is  known  as  the  Tessinian 
style,  which  partakes  of  the  late  Renaissance  and 
the  French  Baroque,  which  was  replacing  it,  but 
with  a  character  of  its  own.     Tessin  built  the 

1  See  Chapter  I.,  p.  n. 


Early  Art  and  Culture         147 

beautiful  cathedral  of  Calmar,  a  gem  of  its  kind, 
the  castle  of  Borgholra,  on  the  island  of  Oland, 
and,  in  his  old  age,  the  central  part  of  the  ex- 
quisite palace  of  Drottuingholm,  on  the  Malar, 
which  his  sou  completed.  This  son,  Tessin  the 
younger,  inherited  his  father's  genius  and  con- 
tinued the  traditions  established  by  him.  He 
built,  as  we  have  seen,  the  Royal  Palace  of  Stock- 
holm, one  of  the  most  elegant  and  tasteful  bits  of 
architecture  to  be  seen  anywhere.  This  and  the 
palace  of  Drottningholm  constitute  the  finest 
monuments  of  Tessinian  art. 

No  longer  content,  then,  with  living  in  their 
distant  chateaux  and  holding  sway  over  the 
neighbourhood,  these  mighty  noblemen  built 
themselves  palaces  in  Stockholm  and  took  their 
share  in  Court  life.  To  house  their  order  they 
erected  the  House  of  Nobles,  one  of  the  hand- 
somest buildings  in  Sweden,  designed  by  two 
French  artists,  Simon  and  Jean  de  la  Vallee, 
father  and  son,  who  had  settled  in  the  country. 
Here  the  French  style  predominates  in  its  broad 
pilasters  and  Corinthian  capitals,  alternating  with 
the  highly  ornate  windows  on  its  facade,  in  the 
gracefully  vaulted  roof  ornamented  with  statues 
and  trophies  of  arms.  By  its  dominating  position 
and  proportions,  by  its  emblems  and  devices,  from 
the  Art  is  et  Marti s  over  the  doorway,  and  the 
inscription  running  round  the  frontal  to  the  paint- 
ing on  the  ceiling  of  its  vast  assembly  hall,  repre- 
senting The  Virtues  Deliberating  round  the  Throne, 


148  Swedish  Life 

the  proud  noblemen  proclaimed  their  claim  to  be 
counted  henceforth  as  the  mainstay  of  the  Crown, 
and  the  house  of  their  order  as  uniting  within  its 
walls  the  vital  forces  of  the  nation. 

Queen  Christina,  during  her  short  but  brilliant 
reign,  proved  herself  an  appreciative  patron  and 
protector  of  the  fine  arts.  An  atmosphere  of 
Renaissance  art  and  philosophy  was  breathed  in 
her  Court.  The  Pallas  of  the  North,  as  the  philo- 
sophers—  Descartes,  Saumaise,  Hensius,  Freins- 
heim,  Naude — whom  she  had  gathered  around 
her  flatteringly  styled  her,  showed  that  she  could 
value  fine  pictures  as  much  as  their  philosophy. 
She  completed  her  gallery  of  old  masters,  culled 
by  her  generals  in  the  wars,  by  subsequent  pur- 
chases, made  with  the  assistance  of  the  foreign 
artists  attached  to  her  Court — the  Dutch  painter 
David  Beck,  a  pupil  of  Van  Dyck,  and  the  French- 
man Sebastien  Bourdon,  a  decorator  of  Versailles. 
To  superintend  her  gallery  and  paint  her  portrait 
seems  to  have  been  their  principal  occupation, 
and,  indeed,  the  number  of  portraits  produced  of 
her  would  stock  a  small  gallery.  But,  as  the 
French  Ambassador  at  her  Court,  Chanut,  wrote 
in  his  Memoirs,  ' '  No  one  portrait  can  give  a  com- 
plete representation  of  her  appearance.  Her  face 
alters  so  greatly  in  expression  with  every  feeling 
that  moves  her  soul,  that  it  is  impossible  from 
one  moment  to  another  to  recognise  in  her  the 
same  person."  In  vain,  official  portraitists  vied 
in  seizing  and  fixing  on  their  canvas  the  ever- 


Early  Art  and  Culture         149 

changing  aspects  of  so  mobile  a  physiognomy. 
They  could  not  arrest  all  the  passing  expressions 
that  gave  such  life  to  a  somewhat  plain  face.  Bour- 
don's portrait,  in  a  black  dress  and  white  lace 
collar,  is  esteemed,  however,  to  be  the  one  that 
has  best  rendered  the  strongly  marked  aristocratic 
features,  the  pale  Vasa  face,  with  the  intellectual 
forehead  and  flashing  grey-blue  eyes  of  this  ex- 
traordinary woman,  who  preferred  her  freedom  to 
a  throne,  and  intellectual  pursuits  to  aristocratic 
power.  Indeed,  she  showed  more  attachment  to 
her  pictures  than  to  her  country  and  her  crown. 
She  parted  with  the  crown  and  with  her  country 
without  compunction;  but  she  refused  to  part 
with  her  picture  gallery,  and  carried  it  off  with 
her.  It  became  dispersed  during  the  vicissitudes 
of  her  vagabond  life,  and  after  her  death  in  Rome; 
and  thus  a  valuable  collection,  which,  from  its 
representative  character,  formed  a  link  in  the  his- 
tory of  painting,  was  lost — lost  to  the  world  as  a 
representative  collection  of  Renaissance  art;  lost 
to  Sweden  as  an  invaluable  nucleus  and  school  of 
painting  in  the  artistic  movement  which  had  now 
set  in. 

At  the  head  of  this  movement  was  another  art- 
patronising  Queen,  Hedwig  Eleonora,  wife  of 
Christina's  Palatine  cousin,  who  had  succeeded 
her  on  the  throne  as  Charles  X.,  and  the  painter, 
David  Klocker,  better  known  under  the  name  of 
Ehrenstrahl,  which  he  took  when  raised  to  the 
nobility  through  her  patronage.     A  clerk  in  a 


i5°  Swedish  Life 

Government  office,  Klocker  had  been  employed 
as  a  scribe,  thanks  to  his  fine  handwriting,  at  the 
peace  negotiations  in  Miinster  and  Osnabriick, 
and  in  drawing  up  the  Treaty  of  Westphalia, 
which  terminated  the  Thirty  Years'  War  (1648). 
Thence  he  went  to  Amsterdam  and  studied  paint- 
ing under  Jacobsz  (165 1),  also  to  Germany  and 
Italy,  where  he  worked  under  Landraert  and 
Berettini  da  Cortona,  making  himself  a  name  in 
Venice  and  Rome.  On  his  return  to  Sweden,  he 
became  Court  painter  and  "  Master  of  Amuse- 
ments" to  the  Queen.  He  has  been  called  the 
father  of  Swedish  painting;  he  was,  at  all  events, 
the  first  painter  of  note  produced  since  the  Swedes 
had  learned  to  appreciate  art.  His  style  had 
something  of  the  Venetian  brilliancy  of  colouring 
and  much  of  the  florid  pompousness  of  the  French 
school  of  the  epoch. 

This  was  the  time  of  the  Baroque  or  late  Renais- 
sance style,  founded  by  Rubens  in  his  magnificent 
creations  for  Marie  de  Medici  at  the  Luxembourg 
(since  transferred  to  the  Louvre),  and  developed 
by  Louis  XIV.  and  Lenotre  in  the  glories  of  Ver- 
sailles. It  was  more  especially  typical  of  Le  Roi 
Soleil,  and  the  great  powdered  wigs  and  long 
rapiers  of  the  Court  of  Versailles.  It  was  famous 
for  its  grand  battles,  painted  in  bird's-eye- view, 
the  kings  and  queens  portrayed  in  allegorical 
figures,  and  surrounded  by  emblems  of  all  the 
virtues,  its  pictures  of  buxom  ladies,  in  very  scant 
clothing,  reclining  on  blue  clouds,  and  rolling  in 


Early  Art  and  Culture         151 

ether  between  heaven  and  earth.  This  was  the 
style  in  which  Ehrenstrahl  painted.  He  decorated 
the  walls  and  ceilings  of  Queen  Hedwig  Eleonora's 
palace  at  Drottningholm  with  overcrowded  fres- 
coes of  Olympian  gods  and  goddesses  under  ultra- 
marine skies;  here  presented  the  Queen  seated 
on  the  chariot  of  fame,  and  surrounded  by  nude 
figures  representing  Magnanimity,  Temperance, 
Prudence,  Bravery,  and  Justice,  in  close  attend- 
ance upon  her.  He  immortalised  her  marriage 
and  the  birth  of  her  son  in  similar  allegorical  sub- 
limities. He  exhibited  the  doings  of  History 
followed  closely  by  Renown,  of  Truth  discovered 
in  her  hiding-place  by  Time  and  Sagacity.1  He 
endowed  the  Catherdal  of  Stockholm  with  elab- 
orate paintings  of  the  Crucifixion  and  the  day  of 
Judgment,  and  the  House  of  Nobles  with  its 
famous  ceiling  of  the  virtues  debating  around  the 
throne:  a  multitudinous  array  of  cloud-riding, 
wreath  -  carrying,  tablet  -  writing,  and  trumpet- 
blowing  figures,  in  flowing  blue  draperies,  disport- 
ing themselves  round  a  throne  supported  in  the 
clouds  by  winged  genii  and  crouching  lions. 

Ehrenstrahl  was,  however,  a  painter  of  many 
parts,  and  when  not  under  the  eyes  of  his  high 
patrons,  and  what  Tessin  called  "  Court  women's 
influence,"  and  when  not  possessed  of  the  alle- 
gorical mania,  he  could  paint  real  life.  He  was  a 
great  portrait  painter,  and  in  some  of  his  portraits 
he  has  been  able  to  overcome  the  incubus  of  pre- 

1 G.  Nordensvan,  Svensk  konst  och  Svenska  Konstnarer. 


i52  Swedish  Life 

vailing  taste  and  traditions,  and  has  given  us,  not 
types  of  his  time,  but  living  individuals.  Some 
of  his  portraits  of  the  royal  family  and  Court  nota- 
bilities are  excellent,  despite  the  flowing  Roman 
mantles  they  are  clad  in,  and  the  impossible  horses 
which  some  of  them  ride.  The  picture  of  the 
royal  children  {Charles  XII.  and  his  Sisters)  is 
full  of  light,  and  shows  a  fine  sense  of  colouring, 
although  he  could  not  help  exhibiting  them  in 
classical  nudity  and  studied  angel  or  cupid  atti- 
tudes, playing  with  the  Swedish  lion,  which, 
flattered  by  their  attention,  rests  contentedly  on 
a  passing  cloud.  Ehrenstrahl's  Water-carriers 
of  Medevi  shows  what  he  could  do  in  another 
line.  It  is  common  life  and  humanity,  realistic 
and  actual,  reminding  one  of  the  Dutch  painters. 
It  was  the  first  painting  of  the  kind  pro- 
duced in  Sweden,  and  founded  a  school  of  genre 
painting.1 

In  all  other  branches  of  art,  Swedish  artists 
emulated  Ehreustrahl  in  the  allegorical  pomposi- 
ties of  the  French  school.  Precht  carved  angels 
and  biblical  figures  in  stone  and  wood  for  church 
altars  and  pulpits,  and  sculptured  allegorical  per- 
sonages in  high  relief  on  the  monuments  of  the 
dead,  while  Lemke  painted  a  series  of  bird's-eye- 
view  battles,  with  regiments  set  up  in  squares,  like 
flower-beds  in  a  garden,  and  Chauveau  poured 
out  on  the  ceilings  of  Drottningholm  the  multi- 
farious contents  of  Pandora's  box.      It  was  an 

1  Carl  L,aurin,  Konsthistoria. 


Early  Art  and  Culture         153 

ecstatic  art,  inspired  by  Rubens'  and  Lebrun's 
apotheosis  of  Marie  de  Medici  and  Louis  XIV.  at 
the  Luxembourg  and  Versailles,  and  by  Van  der 
Meulen's  glorifications  of  the  French  King's  vic- 
tories. There  was  hardly  a  particle  of  national 
sentiment  or  national  inspiration  in  it.  It  was 
Court  art,  obeying  Court  influences,  and  made 
to  emulate  foreign  examples  of  self-glorification, 
and  it  disappeared  in  the  storm  that  burst  upon 
Sweden  in  the  living  drama  of  the  wars  of 
Charles  XII. 

For  a  quarter  of  a  century,  Sweden  was  taken 
up  with  fighting,  and  for  another  quarter  of  a 
century,  she  was  recovering  from  the  prostration 
following  on  too  great  an  effort.  Art  and  letters 
were  alike  silent.  Tessin  the  younger  alone  was 
struggling,  with  what  difficulties  we  have  seen  in 
a  foregoing  chapter,  to  continue  the  building  of 
the  Palace  in  Stockholm.  David  Krafft  is  about 
the  only  other  artist  who  bridges  the  gap.  He 
was  the  portrait  painter  of  Charles  XII.  He 
painted  him  in  his  youth,  boyish  and  ardent,  in 
his  long  blue  coat  and  immense  top-boots,  with 
high  flaps  and  square  toes;  and  again,  on  the  re- 
turn from  Turkey,  bald-headed  and  grey,  with 
the  careworn  face  and  the  hard,  stern  look  born 
of  adversity.  These  two  portraits — the  first  of 
which  may  be  seen  reproduced  in  almost  every 
chateau  in  Sweden  —  represent  half  a  century  of 
painting.  To  these  may  be  added,  however, 
Dahlberg's  remarkable  sketches.     This  general, 


i54  Swedish  Life 

who  has  been  called  the  Vauban  of  Sweden,  hav- 
ing constructed  all  her  fortresses,  had  been 
commissioned  to  collect  the  materials  for  "a  geo- 
graphical description  of  Sweden."  When  the 
war  broke  out,  he  was  left  in  charge  of  the  de- 
fence of  the  country  and  the  recruiting  for  the 
army,  but  he  kept  his  original  object  in  view  and 
went  about  making  sketches  of  the  different 
towns  and  chdteaux.  This  collection  of  sketches 
was  afterwards  engraved  in  Holland  and  published 
under  the  title  of  Suecia  Antica  et  Hodiema.  It 
constitutes  a  striking  picture  of  the  Sweden  of 
that  epoch. 

When  a  revival  came,  after  this  long  period  of 
artistic  inactivity,  a  new  transformation  had  swept 
over  the  world  of  art.  L,e  Roi  Soleil  and  his 
glories,  his  stateliness  and  grandeur  of  fancy,  were 
gone,  and  in  their  place  reigned  the  graceful, 
effeminate,  and  meretricious  rococo,  the  art  of 
Watteau,  of  Boucher,  and  of  Greuze.  But  effemi- 
nate and  meretricious  as  it  was,  inspired  by  the 
loose  Court  of  Louis  XV.  and  its  painted  Pompa- 
dours and  Du  Barrys,  it  had  developed  an  un- 
known feeling  for  truth  and  nature,  born  of  the 
writings  of  Voltaire  and  Rousseau,  of  the  teach- 
ings of  the  Dutch  school  and  the  all-powerful  in- 
fluence of  a  Van  Dyck.  In  Sweden,  at  Court  and 
in  society,  French  influences  were  dominant.  In 
politics,  the  ruling  party  in  Parliament,  the  Hats, 
were  devoted  to  the  French  alliance.  The  Queen, 
L,ouisa  Ulrica,  whose  authority  in  Court  circles 


Early  Art  and  Culture         155 

gave  the  tone,  had  all  her  brother  Frederick  the 
Great's  partiality  for  French  letters  and  art.  The 
Marshal  of  her  Court  and  tutor  of  her  sou  Gus- 
tavus  III.,  Count  Tessin,  son  and  grandson  of  the 
famous  architects,  who  had  great  influence  with 
her,  had  been  long  Ambassador  in  France,  and 
was  devoted  to  French  ideas.  Through  him  the 
Queen  made  large  purchases  of  pictures  in  Paris. 
The  walls  of  Drottningholm  were  hung  with 
Chardins,  Bouchers,  and  L,ancrets.  In  her  family 
gallery,  her  husband,  her  children,  and  the  royal 
family  of  Prussia  were  painted  bj'  Pesne.  In  the 
Swedish  Academy  of  Fine  Arts,  a  French  artist, 
Taraval,  was  director  of  the  first  public  school  of 
painting,  and  he  and  Bouchardon,  another  French 
painter,  were  employed  in  decorating  the  royal 
palaces.  Larcheveque,  a  French  sculptor,  was 
modelling  monumental  statues  of  Vasa  kings  to 
decorate  the  town.  Art  was  again  in  fashion  and 
held  in  high  esteem  in  Sweden;  but  it  was  almost 
exclusively  French  art.  Swedish  artists  flocked 
to  Paris  to  develop  their  talents  and  obtain  their 
consecration  in  the  centre  of  artistic  life.  Many 
made  their  mark  there  and  rose  to  high  honours. 
Lundberg  was  made  a  member  of  the  French 
Academy  of  Fine  Arts,  L,afrensen  became  L,av- 
rance  in  France  and  painted  society  scenes  in  the 
style  of  Fragonard.  His  pictures  V  Assemblee  au 
Salon  and  Qu'en  dit  Monsieur  V  Abbi  are  well 
known.  The  miniature-painter  Hall  was  in  great 
demand,  and  went  by  the  name  of  the  Van  Dyck 


156  Swedish  Life 

of  miniature.  Roslin  painted  for  the  Hotel  de  Ville 
the  picture  commemorating  the  visit  there  of  Louis 
XV.  on  his  return  from  Metz;  he  painted  also  the 
portraits  of  the  Dauphin,  shortly  before  his  death, 
his  wife,  Princess  Marie  Josephe  of  Saxony,  and 
his  sister  Madame  Victoire,  and  of  the  popular 
painters  Francois  Boucher  and  Claude  Vernet.1 
He  was  given  the  title  of  Peintre  du  Roi  and  a 
pension,  and  was  lodged  at  the  Louvre.  Later 
he  portrayed  Marie  Antoinette  en  gala  and  other 
Court  ladies  in  full  dress,  and  became  the  favour- 
ite portrait  painter  of  aristocracy  and  fashion. 

Qui  a  figure  de  satin 
Doit  etre  peint  par  Roslin. 

was  a  common  saying  among  the  grand  ladies  of 
Versailles  and  the  Faubourg  St.  Germain.  His 
gay  and  light  pastel-like  colouring  excelled  in 
giving  his  women  the  pcau  de  satin  they  so  much 
prized,  and  his  men  the  fine  blase  smile  which  was 
all  the  fashion.  Even  in  his  portrait  of  himself 
and  his  wife, — a  French  lady,  la  Belle  Suzanne, 
well  known  as  a  pastel  painter, — he  gives  himself 
this  superior  smile  and  his  wife  this  peach-like 
hue  (Gallery  at  Fano).  From  Paris,  Roslin  was 
summoned  to  St.  Petersburg  to  paint  Catherine 
II.  and  her  Court,  and  when  he  returned  to  Stock- 
holm he  had  a  sort  of  European  reputation.  Here 
he  painted  a  characteristic  portrait  of  Gustavus 

1  O.  Levertin,  Roslin  and  N.  Lafrensen. 


Early  Art  and  Culture        157 

III.  and  one  of  Louisa  Ulrica  as  Queen  Dowager, 
in  which  her  resemblance  to  Frederick  II.  comes 
out  strongly;  also  a  group  of  Gustavus  III.  and 
his  two  brothers — exhibited  in  the  Paris  Salon 
1771 — representing  the  three  princes  in  studied 
attitudes  consulting  a  map  (Stockholm  Museum). 
He  seems  to  have  paid  more  attention  to  the  bril- 
liancy of  the  satins  and  laces  in  their  rich  Court 
costumes  than  to  character  and  individuality. 
Beyond  a  strong  family  likeness,  the  three  faces 
are  insignificant. 

Roslin  returned  to  Paris  and  witnessed  the  out- 
break of  the  Revolution  and  the  downfall  of  the 
Court  and  society  which  were  representative  of 
his  style  of  painting,  the  smiling,  smirking,  light- 
hearted  and  gaily  philosophising  rococo  world. 
In  Sweden,  art  and  society  had  kept  pace  with 
this  world  and  emulated  it  in  all  things.  Pilo, 
Scheffel,  and  Pasch  painted  smiling  and  gaily  clad 
noblemen  to  adorn  the  ancestral  walls  of  their 
chateaux.  The  good  and  simple-minded  King 
Adolphus  Frederick,  with  his  heavy  German  face, 
the  poet  Bellman,  the  people's  songster,  even  the 
single-hearted  and  nature-loving  Linnaeus,  have 
been  immortalised  in  this  gaudy  rococo  style,  to 
suit  the  prevailing  taste.  Fashionable  painters 
were  daubed  with  French  qualifying  epithets  as  a 
distinction.  Wertmuller  was  styled  the  Greuse 
of  Sweden,  and  Hillerstrom  the  Chardin  of  his 
country.  Breda  and  Martin  showed  their  inde- 
pendence by  seeking  their  inspiration  in  England. 


i58  Swedish  Life 

Martin  lived  there  fifteen  years,  painting  for  the 
walls  of  the  Bodleian  Library  at  Oxford  the 
legends  drawn  from  the  Faerie  Queen;  and  he  was 
made  an  honorary  foreign  Academician.  Breda 
studied  under  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds,  and  emulated 
his  bold  Correggio-like  style  and  powerful  colour- 
ing. Horberg  alone  was  a  pure  Swede.  A  man 
of  the  people,  he  painted  for  the  people,  simple 
and  naive  altar-pieces  for  village  churches,  humble 
scenes  of  village  life  taken  from  nature.  But  his 
art,  simple  and  natural,  was  like  a  voice  crying  in 
the  wilderness. 


CHAPTER   VII 


MODERN    ART 


SERGEI,  may  be  called  the  creator  of  Swedish 
original  art.  What  Tessin  had  done  for 
architecture,  what  Ehrenstrahl  failed  to  accom- 
plish, or  only  very  partially  accomplished,  for 
painting,  Sergei  did  in  sculpture.  He  created  an 
individual  style  drawn  from  the  antique,  but  en- 
dowed with  a  life  sprung  from  a  sincere  return  to 
nature.  He  was  the  first  among  his  countrymen  to 
go  back  to  nature  from  schools  and  formulas, 
to  look  at  art  through  nature  and  not  at  nature 
through  art.  Sergei  had  studied  under  Larche- 
veque,  the  French  sculptor,  whom  the  French  in- 
fluences at  Court  had  made  Court  sculptor.  He 
had  assisted  him  in  modelling  the  monumental 
statues  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  and  Gustavus  Vasa 
which  adorn  two  of  the  squares  of  Stockholm. 
They  are  typical  of  the  style  of  art  in  vogue  before 
Sergei  set  his  powerful  stamp  on  it — pompous, 
theatrical,  and  lifeless.  These  were  the  ideals 
Sergei  had  been  taught  to  admire  when  he  went 
abroad  to  complete  his  studies.  In  Rome,  he 
first  made  the  acquaintance  of  the  antique,  and 

i59 


160  Swedish  Life 

the  impression  produced  on  him  was  so  great  that 
he  felt  completely  overwhelmed.  "  Life  in  art," 
as  he  expressed  it,  was  a  revelation  to  him.  He 
sought  to  give  life  to  the  "  decadence  "  ideals  that 
had  been  nurtured  in  his  soul,  and  failure  pro- 
duced a  period  of  agonising  depression.  He 
wandered  about  Rome,  as  he  wrote,  struggling 
"to  unlearn  all  he  had  learned,"  yearning  "  to 
revive  the  antique  in  living  forms,"  and  to  "  re- 
produce nature  on  the  lines  of  the  ancients." 

Neo-classicism,  born  of  Hissing's  and  Winckel- 
mann's  studies  of  the  antique,  of  Canova's  and 
of  Meng's  cold  imitations  of  it,  of  Angelica  Kauff- 
mann's  glowing  enthusiasm  for  it,  had  seized 
Sergei,  too,  but  his  powerful  individuality  and  his 
creative  genius  enabled  him  to  master  the  impres- 
sions produced  by  his  environment,  and  give  his 
productions  a  living,  individual  character.  His 
first  work,  The  Resting  Faun,  produced  a  great 
sensation,  and  was  called  "the  dawn  of  a  new 
day  "  in  art.  Bjornstal,  a  Swedish  traveller  visit- 
ing Rome  at  the  time,  wrote:  "Sergei  is  now 
looked  upon  as  the  greatest  living  sculptor  in 
Rome."  Sergei  spent  eleven  years  in  Rome 
(1767-78).  The  Faun  was  followed  by  his  Dio- 
medes,  his  Mars  and  Venus  (Mars  supporting 
Venus,  who  had  fainted  on  the  battlefield  of 
Troy),  and  his  Amor  and  Psyche  (the  old  myth  of 
Amor  turning  away  from  Psyche  when  she  insists 
on  knowing  his  name  and  descent).  This  last 
group  had  been  ordered  by  Madame  du  Barry, 


Modern  Art  161 

but  was  afterwards  purchased  by  Gustavus 
III.,  as  Madame  du  Barry,  after  the  death  of 
Louis  XV.,  was  unable  to  take  consignment 
of  it. 

By  these  works,  Sergei  had  attained  his  ideal, 
the  revival  of  the  antique  in  living  forms  copied 
from  nature.  As  one  of  the  best  art  critics  of  the 
North,  the  Dane  Julius  Lange,  has  shown,  in 
comparing  the  two  greatest  sculptors  the  Scandi- 
navian countries  have  produced,  Sergei's  lively 
nature  had  given  his  works  a  fire,  an  energy,  a 
concentrated  force  of  life  which  those  of  the  more 
calm  and  contemplative  Thorwaldsen  hardly  at- 
tained. Sergei,  he  adds,  is  the  most  remarkable 
artist  of  his  time.  Canova  has  not  his  solid  and 
clear  power  over  form,  while  David  lacks  his  noble 
and  elevated  sense  of  beauty.1  The  same  writer 
makes  the  curious  remark  that  if  a  statue  of  Ser- 
gei's were  broken,  every  fragment,  a  foot  or  a 
hand,  would  retain  its  beauty  and  character.  A 
fragment  of  Thorwaldsen' s  statues  would  be  a 
broken  limb  of  no  particular  interest.2 

Unfortunately,  Sergei  was  not  allowed  to  pursue 
the  realisation  of  his  genial  conceptions.  He  was 
summoned  back  to  Sweden  at  the  death  of  Larche- 
veque,  to  take  his  place  as  Court  sculptor.  He 
returned  by  way  of  Paris,  where  he  was  made 
Fellow  of  the  Academy  of  Fine  Arts,  for  which 
he   executed  his  statue   Othryades,   representing 

1  Julius  Lange,  Sergei  og  Thorwaldsen,  p.  75. 
2C.  Laurin,  Konsthistoria,  p.  404. 


1 62  Swedish  Life 

the  dying  Lacedaemonian  warrior  writing  on  his 
shield,  with  the  point  of  his  sword  dipped  in  the 
blood  of  his  wound,  a  dedication  to  Jupiter.  He 
visited  London  to  meet  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds,  and 
reached  Stockholm  in  1779.  Here  he  was  made 
much  of  by  the  King,  the  Court,  and  society. 
Gustavus  III.  granted  him  letters  of  nobility. 
As  he  wrote  to  a  friend,  he  now  led  the  life  of 
"  one  who  is  a  nobleman,  a  society  man,  a  gouty 
man,  and  a  melancholy  madman."  He  executed 
busts  of  the  members  of  the  royal  family,  of  Court 
dignitaries,  and  fine  ladies,  yet  even  into  these  he 
threw  such  life  that  they  became  works  of  art. 
In  his  monumental  statue  of  Gustavus  III.,  raised 
on  the  landing-place  opposite  the  palace  to  com- 
memorate the  monarch's  return  from  the  war  with 
Russia,  Sergei  has  admirably  rendered  the  double 
and  complex  nature  of  the  "charmer  king."  He 
is  represented  in  Court  dress  and  flowing  mantle, 
in  an  Apollo-like  attitude,  extending  his  hand 
towards  the  town,  bearer  of  the  olive-branch  of 
peace.  It  is  a  striking  and  characteristic  likeness 
of  a  remarkable  personality,  an  image  of  intellec- 
tual force  and  theatrical  mannerism. 

Sergei  survived  his  King  and  the  Gustavian  era, 
dying  in  1814,  but  the  rest  of  his  life  was  not  very 
productive.  A  sense  of  failure,  of  missed  oppor- 
tunities, weighed  on  his  spirit  and  led  to  hypo- 
chondria. Court  favour  and  officialdom  warped 
a  magnificent  outburst  of  original  art.  Compared 
with  Thorwaldsen's  gigantic  work,  Sergei's  may 


Modern  Art  163 

seem  small,  but  its  influence  on  Scandinavian  art 
has  been  as  great. 

Sergei's  pupils  and  successors,  Goethe  and  By- 
strom,  failed  to  continue  the  grand  traditions  he 
had  left.  Lacking  his  powerful  grasp  of  nature 
and  life,  they  did  not  rise  above  the  cold  imitations 
of  the  antique  and  the  false  neo-classical  idealism 
set  in  vogue  by  Canova.  A  new  departure  in 
sculpture  was  made  by  Fogelberg,  in  his  attempt 
to  give  a  plastic  form  to  the  gods  and  heroes  of 
Scandinavian  mythology.  This  was  the  time 
when  Tegner  and  Geijer  were  writing  poems 
about  Viking  deeds  and  old  Scandinavian  life, 
when  the  Goth  movement  in  literature  was  work- 
ing for  the  revival  of  the  Sagas  and  Kddas  in  art  to 
replace  the  classical  ideals.  Fogelberg' s  statues 
of  Odin,  T/ior,  and  Balder  (Stockholm  Museum), 
were  an  echo  of  Tegner's  Frithiof's  Saga  and 
Geijer' s  Viking.  He  succeeded  in  giving  each 
of  his  gods  of  Walhalla  the  distinctive  character 
they  bear  in  Scandinavian  legend.  Odin  the  all- 
wise  is  calm  and  serene  in  his  strength  and  power 
as  the  majestic  all- father  and  ruler  of  mankind. 
Thor,  shouldering  his  mighty  hammer,  is  the  in- 
carnation of  force.  He  represents  the  all-powerful 
forces  of  nature.  He  wields  the  thunder  and 
lightning  that  rend  the  skies,  the  storm  that 
sweeps  the  forest  and  rouses  the  waves,  the  inward 
fire  that  generates  metals,  causes  the  upheaval  of 
mountains,  and  makes  the  earth  quake.  Balder 
the  mild  is  the  embodiment  of  light  and  sunshine, 


1 64  Swedish  Life 

the  gentle  invisible  force  that  makes  the  grass 
grow,  the  flowers  bloom,  and  the  fruit  to  ripen; 
he  is  the  spirit  of  innocence  and  purity,  who  fills 
the  breasts  of  men  with  goodness  and  love,  in- 
spires generous  acts,  and  protects  the  suffering 
and  oppressed;  the  great  consoler  of  mankind. 
These  creations  of  Fogelberg's  have  an  impressive 
grandeur  which  classes  them  as  genuine  produc- 
tions of  inspired  art.  They  lack,  perhaps,  the 
inward  palpitating  life  of  Sergei's  living  marbles, 
but  they  are  a  fine  plastic  conception  of  the  Scan- 
dinavian gods,  in  their  ideal  amplification  of 
human  virtues,  of  the  qualities  most  prized  in  a 
primitive  society, —  aged  wisdom  and  muscular 
force.  Balder' s  beautiful  expression  of  mildness, 
resignation,  and  love  bears  perhaps  rather  too 
close  a  resemblance  to  Christian  charity. 

The  impulse  thus  given,  Scandinavian  mytho- 
logy and  Viking  life  took  possession  of  Swedish 
art  for  a  time.  Painters  and  sculptors  vied  in  re- 
producing them  in  manifold  forms.  Quarnstrom's 
statue,  Loke  and  Hoder,  represented  the  god  of 
malice  and  evil  directing  the  arrow  of  the  blind 
archer  Hoder  at  the  breast  of  Balder;  another,  the 
abduction  of  Idun,  goddess  of  youth  and  spring, 
the  renovator  of  life,  by  the  giant  Tjasse — the 
representative  of  stormy,  devastating  autumn. 
Molin's  Belt-fighters  gave  a  glimpse  of  Viking 
life,  full  of  dramatic  action  and  concentrated 
energy.  The  group  represents  the  fierce  Scandi- 
navian belted  duel,  in  which  the  two  Viking  war- 


Modern  Art  165 

riors,  stripped  to  the  skin  and  armed  with  sharp 
knives,  are  bound  together  by  the  leather  belt 
which  joins  them  in  mortal  combat.  It  is  of  great 
plastic  effect  and  has  a  typical  Northern  char- 
acter. The  statue  was  shown  in  the  Exhibition 
in  London  in  1862.  and  has  now  a  prominent 
place  in  front  of  the  Museum  in  Stockholm.  It 
made  Molin's  reputation  and  did  much  to  confirm 
the  Viking-life  mania.  The  fountain  erected  by 
the  town  on  the  principal  esplanade  was  decorated 
by  Molin  with  bas-reliefs  of  the  legend  of  (Bgir 
the  sea-god  and  Necken  the  river-god,  surrounded 
by  nymphs  and  mermaids,  to  symbolise  the  posi- 
tion of  Stockholm  bathed  by  sea  and  lake.  Westin 
composed  his  lifeless  mythological  allegories. 
Blomer  painted  his  Necke?i,  drawing  dulcet  tones 
from  his  harp,  his  Freja,  goddess  of  beauty,  drawn 
in  her  chariot  by  cats,  and  Winge  his  Loke  and 
Sigyn,  showing  the  punishment  of  Loke  for  his 
attempt  against  Balder.  Wahlbom  produced  his 
patriotic  pictures  of  Gustavus  Adolphus  at  Liitzen, 
of  Queen  Maria  Eleonora  weeping  over  his  body 
at  Weissenfels;  while  Malmstrom  in  his  mystic 
Elf-dances,  glowing  and  vaporous,  depicted  the 
entrancing  glamour  of  the  Northern  twilight. 
All  these  may  be  seen  at  the  Museum.  They 
represent  a  period  of  art  during  the  first  half  of 
the  nineteenth  century.  The  same  outburst  of 
national  and  patriotic  feeling  in  art  caused  statues 
of  Swedish  kings  and  great  men  to  be  raised  every- 
where.  Goethe's  lifeless  Charles  XIII.  and  Molin's 


1 66  Swedish  Life 

theatrical  Charles  XII.,  in  the  central  esplanades 
of  the  town,  Quarnstrom's  Tegner  at  L,und,  Ber- 
zelius  at  Stockholm,  Engelbrecht  at  Orebro,  Fogel- 
berg's  Charles  XIV.  and  Birger  Yarl  in  Stockholm, 
his  Gustavus  Adolphus  in  Gothenburg,  and  Kj  ell- 
berg's  Linnceus  in  the  Humlegard  Park,  followed 
each  other  in  more  or  less  rapid  succession,  called 
forth  by  the  same  artistic  enthusiasm. 

The  Viking  and  mythological  era,  however, 
wore  itself  out  before  long,  though  it  had  one 
effect  which  was  beneficial  and  lasting.  It  served 
to  direct  the  attention  of  Swedish  artists  to  their 
own  country.  They  suddenly  discovered  the  rich 
field  which  here  lay  open  to  them,  and  which  they 
had  hitherto  wantonly  neglected.  Now  they  be- 
gan, as  the  Dutch  painters  had  done  from  the 
first,  to  produce  homely  scenes  and  everyday 
tragedies  in  humble  life.  Hoekert  led  the  way 
with  his  pictures  of  Lapland  and  the  reindeer 
herdsmen,  showing  the  inner  life  of  these  children 
of  nature  in  their  nomadic  wanderings  amid 
nature's  severest  environment.  In  historical  paint- 
ing, he  chose  such  scenes  as  Gustavus  Vasa  hiding 
from  his  pursuers  in  the  peasant  Tomt  Matt's  cot- 
tage in  Dalecarlia,  or  Bellman  singing  in  Sergei's 
atelier,  or  the  burning  of  the  Palace  in  Stockholm. 
Art  was  launched  upon  its  realistic,  its  human,  its 
democratic  career.  D'Unker  painted  Hogarth- 
like tragedies  of  humble  town  life:  A  Gambling 
Saloo?i ;  A  Pawnbroker's  Shop;  A  Third-class 
Waiting-room  at  the  railway  station.     Nordem- 


Modern  Art  167 

berg  gave  tableaii-vivant  images  of  tithe-collecting 
in  Skaue  and  Fagerlin  Dutch-like  representations 
of  peasant  love-making,  such  as  Jealousy,  and  A 
Declaration;  while  Amalia  Lindegren  portrayed 
charming  little  scenes  of  peasant  life  in  Dalecarlia, 
e.g.,  The  Little  One's  Last  Bed,  Grandmother's 
Eyesight,  and  Sunday  Evening.  The  landscape 
painters,  Marcus  L,arssou,  Alfred  Wahlberg,  and 
Edward  Berg,  reproduced  some  of  the  striking 
aspects  of  Swedish  life  and  scenery.  Egron 
Lundgren  alone  remained  an  exotic.  He  had 
lived  long  in  Italy  and  Spain,  and  had  travelled 
in  India  and  the  East,  and  his  pictures  had  one 
and  all  a  Southern  glow.  An  artist  to  the  tips  of 
his  fingers,  his  eye  could  see  no  beauty  or  colour 
north  of  the  Alps.  He  was  principally  a  painter 
in  water-colours,  and  his  brilliant  colouring  needed 
the  glow  of  sunny  lands  and  the  clearness  of 
Southern  skies.  There  was  something  of  a  Ga- 
varni's  spirituel  touch  in  his  Italian  beggars,  his 
Spanish  dancing-girls,  his  Arab  chiefs,  and  his 
Cairo  street-barbers,  which  gave  an  originality 
and  a  cachet  to  these  well-worn  subjects.  They 
were  piquant  and  clever  fantasies  more  than  sober 
realities,  yet  they  had  a  charm  and  winning  power 
that  won  for  them  universal  admiration.  Egron 
Luudgren  lived  much  in  England,  where  his  style 
was  greatly  appreciated.  He  was  made  a  member 
of  the  Society  of  Painters  in  Water  Colours,  and 
was  invited  to  Balmoral,  where  he  painted  scenes 
from  Shakespeare  for  Queen  Victoria.     In  1858, 


1 68  Swedish  Life 

he  went  out  to  India  at  the  expense  of  an  English 
publishing  firm,  and  was  permitted,  along  with 
the  Times  correspondent,  Mr.  Russell,  to  accom- 
pany L,ord  Clyde  to  L,ucknow,  during  the  Indian 
Mutiny,  exhibiting  his  sketches  in  London  on  his 
return.  He  was  sometimes  in  Sweden,  where  he 
was  always  much  made  of,  but  as  often  in  India, 
Egypt,  England,  and  Norway,  being  possessed 
of  the  roving  spirit  of  a  lover  of  nature,  and  fond 
of  shifting  scenes  and  changing  aspects  of  life. 

This  movement  towards  the  "nationalising" 
of  art  in  Sweden  owed  much  of  its  success  and 
popularity  to  the  personal  influence  of  the  mon- 
arch who  then  occupied  the  throne.  Charles  XV. 
was  himself  a  landscape  painter  of  no  mean  merit. 
He  possessed  a  strong  individual  grasp  of  nature 
and  a  delicate  sense  of  the  beauty  of  the  Swedish 
landscape,  whether  sombre  wood  or  laughing 
valley  or  glittering  lake,  seen  in  the  soft  radiancy 
of  the  Northern  light.  He  was  not  able  to  devote 
to  art  the  undivided  attention,  the  ceaseless,  all- 
absorbing  hard  work,  which  alone  makes  the 
great  artist,  as  distinguished  from  the  clever  ama- 
teur, but  his  paintings  show  exceptional  talent. 
Their  boldness  and  freshness  denote  the  true 
artistic  temperament,  and  as  a  protector  of  art 
and  artists  his  influence  was  great  and  beneficial. 
His  was  more  than  the  usual  Court  patronage  of 
art,  and  his  reign  was  a  period  of  great  artistic 
activity  and  productiveness. 

Of  the  many  notable  painters  this  period  brought 


Modern  Art  169 

forth,  three  are  specially  prominent  and  represent- 
ative— George  von  Rosen,  Julius  Kronberg,  and 
Gustave  Cederstrom,  who  rank  among  the  great- 
est painters  Sweden  has  produced.   Count  von  Ro- 
sen is  an  aristocrat  in  thought,  and  a  benevolent 
humanitarian  in  feeling.     The  chivalry  of  a  feu- 
dal and  troubadour  age  mingles  with  his  Renais- 
sance love  of  beauty  and  humanistic  enthusiasm. 
The  choice  of  his  subjects,  is  in  itself  an  indication 
of  this.    They  all  pertain  to  the  Renaissance  period 
of  history,  and  show  the  workings  of  conflicting 
passions.     They  have,  along  with  a  tender  human 
feeling,  something  of  Velasquez's  aristocratic  bent, 
something,  too,  of  his  thoroughness  and  brilliancy 
of  execution,  his  technical  solidity  and  vivid  col- 
ouring.    George  von  Rosen  is  of  those  who  hold 
that  a  picture   is  meant  to  tell  a  tale,  to  con- 
vey an  impression,  beyond  that  of  the  beauty  of 
form  or  concrete  realities.     Erik  XIV.  y  his  prin- 
cipal historical  painting  (in  the  Stockholm  Mu- 
seum), depicts  a  scene  in  that  unfortunate  King's 
checkered  and  romantic  life,  artistic  and  refined 
as  that  of  a  Medici,  and,  like  it,  stained  with 
bloodshed  and  crime.     The  King  is  seated  at  the 
feet  of  Karin  Mansdotter,  his  mistress,  later  his 
wife,  and  at  all  times  a  ministering  angel  of  tender, 
womanly  devotion,  when  the  evil  genius  of  his 
reign,  his  Minister,  Goran  Persson,  brings  him 
another  list  of  death-warrants  to  sign— more  lives 
to  be  taken  to  strike  terror  and  to  crush  incipient 
revolt.     The  King  is  eager  to  sign,  ever  suspicious 


i7°  Swedish  Life 

of  secret  enemies,  and  haughtily  indifferent  to 
human  life,  when  the  cry  of  horror  of  the  gentle 
woman  at  his  side  arrests  his  hand.  With  clasped 
hands  and  trembling  form,  Karin  pleads  for  mercy, 
while  casting  an  imploring  look  at  the  all-power- 
ful Minister,  whose  scowling,  imperious  gaze  is 
fixed  upon  her,  charged  with  hatred  and  menace. 
The  struggle  in  the  King's  soul,  between  hatred 
and  love,  suspicious  fear  and  awakening  con- 
science, is  shown  in  the  dark  brooding  expression 
on  his  face,  the  absent  staring  into  vacancy  of  his 
fixed  gaze.  The  admirable  attitudes  and  group- 
ing of  the  figures,  the  contrast  of  expression  on 
the  three  faces,  and  the  intensity  of  emotion  dis- 
played by  them  all  have  given  this  picture  its 
great  reputation.  The  history  of  a  reign  is  con- 
centrated in  that  moment  of  intense  human  emo- 
tion. The  same  dramatic  effects  may  be  seen  in 
Von  Rosen's  Prodigal  So?i.  At  the  door  of  a 
mediaeval  manor,  a  beggar,  tattered  and  road- 
stained,  has  pleaded  for  admittance.  The  door  is 
opened  by  the  haughty  and  stern  lady  of  the 
manor.  Mother  and  son  stand  suddenly  in  each 
other's  presence,  and  the  whole  sad  story  of 
estrangement  and  misery,  ingratitude  and  re- 
pentance, is  told  at  a  glance,  in  the  crouching 
attitude  of  the  broken,  self- reproachful  youth, 
and  the  tremor  of  the  crushed  woman,  clinging  to 
the  doorpost  for  support.  There  is  a  softer  and 
more  mystic  emotion  in  Von  Rosen's  Qtieen  Dag- 
mar  (in   Fredriksborg  Castle,   Denmark).     The 


Modern  Art  171 

good  Queen  died  longing  to  bid  farewell  to  her 
absent  husband,  the  great  King  Valdemar,  who 
was  away  pursuing  his  conquests.  She  had  in  vain 
praj-ed  that  she  might  be  spared  to  gaze  once 
more  on  his  features  before  dying,  and  she  expired 
with  the  prayer  on  her  lips.  She  is  laid  out  in 
state,  surrounded  by  mourners,  priests,  and  nuns 
in  prayer,  when  the  King  returns.  As  he  stands 
gazing  at  her,  her  prayer  is  suddenly  answered  in 
a  miracle.  The  closed  eyelids  move,  and  in  a 
last  silent  glance  the  Queen  takes  leave  of  her 
husband.  As  a  portrait  painter,  Count  von  Rosen 
stands  very  high.  His  portraits  of  Charles  XV. 
and  Oscar  II.,  of  the  Arctic  explorer  Nordensk- 
jold  in  his  furs,  surrounded  by  Polar  ice,  of  Pontus 
Wikner,  a  profound  thinker,  in  one  of  his  brown 
studies,  that  of  his  own  father,  constructor  of  the 
first  railway  in  Sweden,  and  another  of  himself, 
painted  for  the  Uffizi  Gallery  of  Painters  in  Flor- 
ence, have  won  him  a  well-merited  reputation  as  a 
characteristic  portrayer  of  marked  individualities. 
Julius  Kronberg  is  a  painter  of  great  boldness 
and  powerful  colouring.  He  made  his  mark  with 
the  very  first  pictures  he  exhibited.  His  Nymph 
(in  the  Stockholm  Museum),  a  beautiful  symphony 
of  colour,  enhancing  the  majesty  of  the  female 
form  reclining  among  flowers,  and  his  Advent  of 
Spring  (in  the  James  Dickson  Gallery),  a  fresh 
and  lovely  young  figure  surrounded  by  cupids 
gliding  through  space,  piloted  by  a  stork  return- 
ing to  its  Northern  home,  are  paintings  of  rare 


172  Swedish  Life 

freshness  and  grace,  marked  by  exquisite  colour- 
ing. His  great  historical  painting,  Saul  and 
David  (Stockholm  Museum),  is  still  more  strik- 
ing. The  figure  of  Saul,  proud  and  regal,  with 
strikingly  noble  features  but  troubled  gaze,  is  re- 
clining, in  Oriental  garb,  on  a  couch,  his  chin 
resting  on  his  hand  and  elbow.  At  his  feet, 
seated  on  the  ground,  is  the  youthful  figure  of 
David,  with  girded  loins,  stringing  his  harp,  his 
face  wrapped  in  the  ecstasy  of  musical  fervour. 
It  is  a  fine  picture,  in  the  Hans  Makart  style, 
splendid  in  colouring  and  powerful  in  effect.  The 
same  style  marks  Kronberg's  pictures,  The  Queen 
of  Sheba  ( James  Dickson  Gallery),  his  Hypatia 
(Bunsow  Gallery),  his  Death  of  Cleopatra  (Tistad 
Chateau),  the  last  taken  from  Shakespeare's  scene 
in  Antony  and  Cleopatra.  These  Oriental  scenes 
serve  to  bring  out  the  artist's  admirable  gifts  of 
effective  colouring.  Most  of  all  are  these  mani- 
fested, perhaps,  in  his  ceiling  decorations  in  the 
grand  staircase  of  the  Royal  Palace,  and  in  the 
church  of  Adolphus  Frederic,  which  are  master- 
pieces of  decorative  art. 

Baron  Cederstrom  has  devoted  himself  more 
especially  to  the  epopee  of  Charles  XII.  No  one 
better  than  he  can  reproduce  the  weather-beaten 
faces,  the  silent  grandeur  and  manly  gravity  of 
the  heroes  of  that  iron  period  of  Swedish  history. 
He  shows  it  in  his  well-known  pictures,  Recruiting 
and  The  Flag;  in  his  mural  decorations,  such  as 
at  the  Town  Hall  of  Malmo,  representing  Magnus 


Modern  Art  173 

Stenbock's  campaign;  and,  still  more,  in  his  Epi- 
logue (in  the  Museum  in  Stockholm),  which  repre- 
sents the  transportation  of  Charles  Twelfth's  body 
back  to  Sweden  from  Norway,  where  he  had 
fallen.  The  King's  body,  on  a  stretcher,  is  being 
carried  on  the  shoulders  of  his  officers  and  men, 
over  the  snow-covered  mountains,  through  a  wild 
and  desolate  pass.  The  small  group  are  trudging 
along,  mournful  and  dejected,  through  the  dreary 
waste,  taking  their  turn  in  bearing  the  precious 
burden.  Following  the  flag  come  the  rest  of  the 
troops  in  the  rear.  Cederstrom's  chaste,  grave, 
and  rather  dark  colouring  has  brought  out,  in  a 
wonderful  fashion,  all  the  tragedy  of  the  situation; 
the  stern  expression  on  the  martial  faces  of  officers 
and  men,  the  wintry  desolation  around,  and  the 
heavy  tramp  of  the  long  solitary  march  are  ad- 
mirably rendered.  The  pathos  of  this  pitiable 
end  to  so  glorious  a  career  appears  in  the  attitude 
of  the  solitary  mountain  huntsman,  who,  with  his 
boy  and  his  dog,  stands  by  the  wayside  as  the 
procession  passes.  He  is  alone  to  doff  his  fur  cap 
and  salute  the  remains  of  one  who,  but  a  short 
time  before,  made  half  Europe  tremble,  while  the 
other  half  was  lost  in  amazement  at  his  extraordi- 
nary fortunes  and  prodigious  victories. 

Among  the  younger  generation  of  artists,  who 
are  numerous,  very  earnest,  and  penetrated  by  a 
deep  sense  of  the  high  aims  of  art,  the  modern 
human  and  realistic  tendencies  are  prominent. 
Impressionism  holds  sway  only  in  so  far  as  free 


174  Swedish  Life 

scope  is  allowed  to  individual  feeling  to  assert 
itself  in  the  conscientious  rendering  of  living  reali- 
ties. Having  learned  to  look  around  them  and  to 
paint  what  they  see,  artists  have  been  brought  to 
look  also  within  themselves  and  to  paint  what  they 
feel.  The  great  merit  of  this  younger  school  is 
that  they  have  given  up  going  abroad  for  their 
impressions  and  inspirations,  and  have  learned  to 
seek  them  in  their  own  land,  to  be  inspired  by  its 
great  traditions  and  its  picturesque  aspects.  They 
do  not  aim  at  simply  furnishing  natural  or  psycho- 
logical documents  for  discussion,  but  at  reproduc- 
ing the  realities  before  their  eyes  with  the  deep 
and  sincere  emotion  that  love  of  their  country  and 
its  particular  charm  awakens.  Their  works  can- 
not be  classed  under  schools  or  called  by  technical 
names,  for  they  are  the  outcome  of  individual 
temperament.  They  cannot,  of  course,  be  ade- 
quately dealt  with  here,  and,  at  most,  a  few  only 
can  be  mentioned  among  the  most  representative 
in  their  special  directions. 

Painters  like  Zorn,  L,arsson,  Forsberg,  Joseph- 
son,  Kreuger,  Pauli,  Oscar  Bjork,  Richard  Berg, 
Hauna  Hirsch-Pauli;  painters  of  animal  life  like 
Bruno  L,iljefors;  landscape  painters  like  Carl 
Nordstrom,  Eugene  Jansson  and  Prince  Eugene; 
and  sculptors  like  Hasselberg,  Borjeson,  L,und- 
berg,  and  Christian  Eriksson  possess  so  strong  an 
individuality,  and  are  so  personal  in  their  style 
and  manner,  that  it  requires  no  very  deep  study 
of  their  works  to  recognise  them  at  a  glance. 


Modern  Art  175 

Take  any  of  Carl  Nordstrom' s  Northern  sunsets, 
Eugene  Jansson's  Midsummer  Night,  Pauli's  Mid- 
summer Dream,  Richard  Berg's  Evening, —  the 
scenes  are  all  of  a  kindred  nature,  yet  how  widely 
different  the  treatment  and  how  particular  the 
impression  produced  by  each!  The  intense  feel- 
ing of  the  artist  for  nature  pervades  them  and  fills 
them  with  a  communicative  emotion  which  seems 
special  to  each.  You  cannot  say  why  Nils  Kreu- 
ger's  rural  scenes  exert  such  a  charm  any  more 
than  you  can  define  why  certain  chords  please  the 
ear  more  than  others,  though  all  are  within  the 
rules  of  harmony.  Josephson's  Merman  battling 
with  the  fall  of  the  waters  is  a  weird  picture  which 
may  not  please  ever3'body;  but  what  power  in  the 
expression  of  human  suffering,  of  the  inevitable- 
ness  of  fate,  what  violence  in  the  assertion  of  the 
artist's  conception!  Hanna  Hirsch-Pauli's  por- 
traits of  such  marked  individual  characters  as  the 
writer  Verner  von  Heidenstam,  and  the  champion 
of  woman  and  individualism,  Ellen  Key,  and 
Oscar  Bjork's  portrait  of  Prince  Eugene  in  his 
atelier,  bear  a  powerful  stamp  of  their  own,  which 
classes  them  as  masterly  paintings. 

In  Hasselberg's  statues  {The  Snowdrop,  The 
Hedge-rose,  and  77;,?  Frog),  woman  is  the  element 
of  life  and  fecundity  in  nature;  in  Lundberg's  The 
Wave  and  the  Strand,  she  is  the  plaything  of  fate 
and  a  passing  joy.  Borjeson  is  a  specialist  in  giv- 
ing a  living  and  characteristic  expression  to  the 
colossal  figures  of  his  historical  statues.     There  is 


176  Swedish  Life 

a  breath  of  fresh  and  boisterous  life  in  Christian 
Eriksson's  works;  his  bas-reliefs  of  Linnaeus  in 
the  Museum  especially  show  his  power  in  giving 
life  to  his  marbles. 

Forsberg's  sentimental  paintings,  The  Death  of 
a  Hero  and  The  Acrobat  Family,  reproduce  foreign 
scenes,  as  Hagborg's  and  Samson's  figures  and 
landscapes  are  inspired  by  French  life  and  French 
horizons,  amid  which  they  have  mostly  lived  and 
developed  their  talent,  but  the  individual  spark  in 
them  is  Northern.  Prince  Eugene  not  only  con- 
tinues the  traditions  of  the  royal  family  in  his  love 
of  art,  but  he  is  an  artist  of  advanced  views  and  a 
very  individual  bent.  Gifted  with  a  strongly  de- 
veloped artistic  temperament,  he  is  passionately 
devoted  to  his  art,  and  as  earnestly  engrossed  in 
it  as  any  one  can  be.  His  landscapes  of  Tyreso 
and  his  Old  Palace,  seen  under  a  lowering  sky 
and  shifting  lights,  with  dark  threatening  clouds 
rolling  over  it,  bear  the  unmistakable  impress  of  a 
passionate  and  individual  feeling  for  nature. 

A  glimpse  at  a  landscape  of  Bruno  Liljefors 
carries  you  into  the  very  heart  of  Sweden  at  once. 
The  silence  of  the  sombre  forest,  snow-clad  and 
unending,  with  its  silent  life,  the  eagle  soaring 
over  it,  the  blinking  owl  on  the  towering  crag, 
or  the  summer  scene  with  the  wild  geese  sweeping 
down  from  the  blue  sky  to  the  green  shores  of  the 
silvery  lake,  or,  again,  the  lonely  huntsman  breast- 
ing his  way  through  the  thick  wood  (Prince  Carl's 
Gallery)   and   the    blackcock    perched  on  high 


Modern  Art  177 

watching  his  mate,  or  the  merciless  eagles  pounc- 
ing down  fiercely  on  their  pre}'  (Stockholm  Mu- 
seum)— such  scenes  and  incidents,  under  his  magic 
touch,  typify  the  country  with  singular  truth,  and 
vividly  suggest  the  effect  of  environment  on  the 
character  and  history  of  the  people.  L,iljefors  be- 
longs to  the  gifted  few  who  hear  the  grass  growing 
and  know  the  secret  of  every  bird's  cry.  As  he 
has  said  himself,  he  does  not  paint  types  of  ani- 
mals, but  portraits  of  individuals  observed  in  their 
free  life.1  He  seems,  indeed,  to  lay  his  ear  on  the 
very  heart  of  nature,  and  to  note  its  pulsations — 
the  rugged,  storm-beaten  nature  of  his  native  land, 
which  he  understands  and  feels  as  no  one  else  has 
done.2 

Anders  Zorn's  pictures  of  life  are  eloquent  and 
full  of  deep  meaning.  Our  Daily  Bread  is  but  a 
group  of  peasants  working  in  a  field,  while  their 
scanty  meal  is  being  prepared,  yet  what  a  glowing 
suggestion  of  the  sanctity  of  labour  and  the  health 
and  contentment  derived  from  the  law  which  bids 
humanity  work  for  its  bread!  It  is  not  a  "thought- 
out  "  picture,  painted  to  point  a  moral;  it  is  the 
spontaneous  impression  produced  by  a  living  real- 
ity simply  and  sincerely  given.  More  drastic  and 
sombre  is  the  way  this  lesson  is  taught  in  the 
picture  of  his  drunken  labourer  lying  by  the  way- 
side. The  fields,  the  sky,  and  the  whole  aspect 
of  nature  are  as  gay  as  before;   only  the  wife, 

1  Tor  Hedberg,  Bruno  Liljefors,  p.  39. 

2  Carl  L,aurin,  Konsthistoria,  p.  391. 


178  Swedish  Life 

seated  by  the  drunken  man's  side,  is  stupefied  in 
her  mournful  helplessness.  She  can  but  watch 
over  him  and  bear  the  penalty  of  his  absence  from 
work.  Zorn's  pictures  of  seaside  life  are  full  of 
sunshine  and  light,  symphonies  of  bright  colours 
in  uncompromising  realism,  but  a  realism  that  is 
special  to  Swedish  art,  because  vivified  and  en- 
nobled by  the  intense  love  of  the  artist  for  the  sub- 
jects he  is  painting.  Zorn  is  also  a  remarkable 
portrait  painter.  His  portraits  of  Oscar  II.,  Prince 
Carl,  Ernest  Renan,  but  more  especially  perhaps 
the  one  of  himself  in  his  atelier  and  that  of  the 
well-known  Swedish  humorist,  Harold  Wieselgren 
(Stockholm  Museum),  have  established  his  repu- 
tation in  this  respect.  He  is,  doubtless,  among 
Swedish  artists  the  one  who  is  best  known  abroad. 
He  has  lived  in  France,  in  England,  and  in 
America,  where,  as  a  portrait  painter,  he  has  been 
much  employed  in  "millionaire"  circles.  Lately 
he  has  tried  his  hand  at  sculpture  and  has  mod- 
elled a  statue  of  Gustavus  Vasa,  which  is  to  be 
placed  before  the  Church  of  Mora,  in  Dalecarlia, 
on  the  spot  where  the  fugitive  patriot  first 
called  on  the  peasants  to  join  him  in  revolt. 

Carl  L,arsson  is  the  very  incarnation  of  the  spirit 
of  the  North.  His  audacity,  his  love  of  novelty 
and  adventure,  the  freshness  of  his  impressions, 
the  youthfulness  of  his  enthusiasm,  and  his  whole 
vision  of  life  are  Scandinavian  to  the  core.  In  his 
pictures  of  home  life,  mostly  taken  from  his  own 
home,  he  is  genial,  happy,  fond  of  bright  colours, 


Modern  Art  179 

of  flowers  and  sunshine,  enraptured  with  existence 
and  prone  to  see  its  bright  sides.  His  imagination 
is  vivid  and  ever  active,  and  moves  among  gentle 
and  pleasing  images.  His  frescoes  in  the  new 
Opera  House  are  a  gamut  of  soft  colours  and 
happy  allegorical  fancies.  In  his  frescoes  in  the 
Girls'  School  at  Gothenburg,  he  has  glorified  the 
Scandinavian  woman  in  her  different  aspects 
throughout  history.  The  Viking  warrior's  proud 
and  brave  companion  stands  contemplating,  with 
a  gentle  mien  of  mingled  pride  and  sorrow,  the 
engraved  stone  raised  over  the  tomb  of  her  fallen 
husband;  the  woman  of  the  heroic  age,  of  the 
Thirty  Years'  War,  is  seated,  embroidering  a 
golden  standard  for  the  absent  ones  fighting 
under  Gustavus  Adolphus  in  Germany;  the  gay 
society  lady  of  the  eighteenth  century,  in  her  ele- 
gant and  bright  salon,  is  taken  up  with  the  min- 
gled intellectual  and  frivolous  pursuits  of  the 
Gustavian  era;  while  modern  woman  is  typified 
by  a  group  of  lovely  young  girls,  in  bright  sum- 
mer dresses,  playing  in  a  garden  and  by  the  image 
of  Frederika  Bremer  at  work  at  her  writing-table. 
The  schoolgirl,  in  plodding  through  her  classes, 
is  thus  brought  into  daily  contact,  at  an  age  when 
impressions  are  most  vivid,  with  real,  elevated 
art  in  the  most  genial  and  happy  artistic  produc- 
tions. In  the  same  way,  Larsson  has  covered  the 
walls  of  the  Furstemberg  Gallery  at  Gothenburg 
with  lively  and  characteristic  groups  representing 
the  three  great  epochs  of  art,  Renaissance,  rococo, 


180  Swedish  Life 

and  modern  realism,  and  he  has  admirably  suc- 
ceeded in  showing  the  features  which  characterise 
each.  Entrusted  with  the  difficult  task  of  deco- 
rating the  walls  of  the  entrance  hall  to  the  National 
Museum  in  Stockholm,  L,arsson  has  produced 
there  six  frescoes  commemorating  the  different 
epochs  of  art  in  Sweden,  as  typified  by  the  differ- 
ent impulses  which  marked  the  stages  of  its  pro- 
gress in  history.  In  the  first,  Ehrenstrahl,  called 
the  Father  of  Painting,  is  seen  painting  his  por- 
trait of  Charles  XI.  In  the  second,  Tessin,  the 
architect,  is  directing  the  workmen  building  the 
Royal  Palace.  The  third  shows  Taraval  teaching 
his  pupils  in  the  first  school  of  art.  Next  to  it, 
Queen  Louisa  Ulrica,  in  her  picture  gallery  at 
Drottningholm,  is  examining  the  pictures  bought 
by  her  Court  Marshal  in  France  and  Holland. 
Farther  on,  Gustavus  stands  surveying  the  land- 
ing of  the  ancient  statues  bought  during  his 
travels  in  Italy  for  the  encouragement  of  art  in 
his  country.  The  last  represents  Sergei  in  his 
atelier  working  at  his  statue  of  Amor  and  Psyche. 
A  better  summary  could  not  be  given  of  the 
history  of  Swedish  art,  of  the  turning-point  of  its 
different  phases,  than  is  thus  afforded  by  these 
fine  compositions,  full  as  they  are  of  life  and 
realism,  of  which  every  detail  is  historically 
correct. 


CHAPTER  VIII 


PUBLIC   LIFE   AND   MORALITY 


EVER  since  the  earliest  days  of  their  history, 
the  Swedes  have  been  in  the  habit  of  manag- 
ing their  own  affairs.  They  enjoy  an  unusually 
large  share  of  local  self-government.  This  is 
based  on  the  old  parochial  system  and  connected 
with  the  Church.  In  old  days  the  parish  chose 
its  pastor  and  provided  for  his  maintenance.  He 
was  given  a  house  and  some  farm  land  in  the 
parish  and  allowed  so  many  measures  of  corn  and 
other  farm  produce,  which  the  parishioners  pro- 
vided between  them.  He  was  head  of  the  parish 
community,  presided  over  the  Board  which  ad- 
ministered all  its  affairs,  from  Church  and  school 
matters  to  the  maintenance  of  roads,  public  safety, 
and  public  health.  Now  the  parish  priest  is  ap- 
pointed by  the  King  or  the  Consistory  and  is  paid 
out  of  the  rates,  and  while  the  administration  of 
Church  and  secular  affairs  is  confided  to  special 
Boards,  the  local  clergyman  has  a  seat  on  them 
all,  and  the  parish  retains  its  right  to  elect  these 
Boards  and  the  clergyman  himself.  Candidates 
for  a  vacant  living  have  to  preach  their  "trial 

181 


1 82  Swedish  Life 

sermon  "  before  the  congregation,  which  then  pro- 
ceeds to  vote  for  them.  Out  of  the  three  who 
obtain  the  highest  number  of  votes,  the  King,  if  it 
is  a  royal  benefice,  or  the  bishop  and  Consistory, 
if  it  is  a  so-called  consistorial  living,  have  to  ap- 
point one.  The  candidate  of  the  majority  is  gen- 
erally selected,  unless  very  grave  reasons  render 
the  next  candidate  on  the  list  preferable. 

In  the  rural  districts,  every  parish  forms  a  self- 
governing  community,  the  administration  of 
which  is  confided  to  the  special  Boards  elected  by 
the  parish  members.  Every  member  of  a  parish, 
man  and  woman  alike,  who  has  a  vested  interest 
in  the  community,  that  is,  who  possesses  house 
property  of  the  value  of  ioo  crowns  (^5  us.  id.), 
or  who  rents  or  farms  property  of  the  value  of  500 
crowns,  or  who  pays  iucome  tax  on  500  crowns, 
has  a  right  to  take  part  and  vote  in  the  parochial 
assemblies.  The  vote  is,  however,  multiple  and 
progressive,  being  fixed  by  a  "  graduated  voting 
scale,"  according  to  which  members  are  allowed 
one  vote  for  every  tenth  of  a  crown  they  pay  in 
income  tax,  though  the  maximum,  may  not  ex- 
ceed 5000  votes,  or  one  tenth  of  the  aggregate 
number  of  votes.  This  gives  those  who  have 
large  vested  interests  in  the  parish  a  preponder- 
ating share  in  its  administration.  The  parish 
assembly  meets  once  a  year  to  elect  the  Church- 
wardens (Kyrkorad)  ;  also  the  School  Board 
(Skolrad)  and  Poor-relief  Commissions  (Fattig- 
vard),    on   both   of    which    women   are  equally 


Public  Life  and  Morality       18 


i 


eligible;  and  the  Communal  Board,  which  forms 
the  executive  of  local  government.  The  parish- 
priest  is  by  right  president  of  the  Church,  Poor- 
relief,  and  School  Boards,  and  a  member  of  the 
Communal  Board,  which  consists,  besides  him- 
self, of  from  two  to  ten  members  elected  for  four 
years  and  renewable  by  one  half  each  second  year. 
In  towns,  the  parochial  system  applies  only  to 
the  administration  of  the  Church  and  schools. 
The  municipal  government  is  centralised  in  a 
Council  of  "  Town  Delegates  "  {Stadsfullmagtige), 
elected  by  the  members  of  the  different  parishes 
in  the  town.  Here  the  vote  belongs  only  to  those 
who  pay  taxes,  that  is,  who  have  an  income  ex- 
ceeding 500  crowns,  in  the  proportion  of  one  vote 
for  every  crown  paid  in  income  tax,  not  exceed- 
ing, however,  an  aggregate  of  100  votes.  This 
Town  Council  consists  of  from  20  to  60  members, 
according  to  the  size  of  the  town,  and  is  presided 
over  by  the  mayor.  Stockholm  is  exceptional, 
however,  for  its  Town  Council  consists  of  100 
members,  and  used  to  be  presided  over  by  the 
Governor- General  of  the  town.  By  a  recent  law, 
however,  the  Town  Council  is  now  allowed  to 
elect  its  own  president.  There  are  in  all  2399 
self-governing  rural  communities  in  the  kingdom 
and  only  92  urban  municipalities.  The  average 
rural  community  represents  about  2000  members, 
the  average  urban  municipality  about  12,000. 
The  rural  district  extends  on  an  average  over  200 
square  kilometres,  varying  from  75  in  the  thickly 


1 84  Swedish  Life 

populated  provinces  in  the  South  to  nearly  iooo 
square  kilometres  in  the  extreme  North.  There 
is  one  parish,  Gellivare,  in  Norrland,  which  in 
extent  is  equal  to  the  kingdom  of  Saxony. 

These  local  governing  bodies  assess  their  own 
rates  and  appoint  their  own  magistrates.  The 
rates  consist  of  the  communal  or  municipal  tax 
and  the  Church,  school,  and  poor  rates.  They 
vary  considerably  from  one  town  or  rural  district 
to  another,  according  to  local  circumstances, 
averaging  from  5  to  15$  of  income.  Some  of  these 
communities  are  rich,  possessing  land,  forests, 
pasturage,  houses,  and  building  ground,  the 
revenue  derived  from  which  goes  to  relieve  the  in- 
habitants by  the  diminution  of  their  rates.  The 
aggregate  expenses  of  all  the  self-governing  com- 
munities in  the  kingdom  amounted  in  1900  to  88^ 
million  crowns,  being  about  18  crowns  (£1)  per 
head  of  the  inhabitants.  These  expenses  come 
under  the  following  headings: 

Crowns.        Crowns. 

Church 10,740,000  or  2.13  per  head. 

Schools 18,737,000"  3.72    "      " 

Poor-relief 13,208,000  "   2.62    ' 

Hospitals  and  tned- )    3^3^000  "  0.78    ' 
ical  assistance . . .  ) 

Public  works 26,591,000  "   5.27    ' 

Miscellaneous 15,671,000  "   3.10    ' 


«c 


M 

M 


Of  the  communal  revenue,  about  45$  was  derived 
from  rates  (7. 16  crowns  per  head  of  the  total  popu- 


Public  Life  and  Morality      185 

lation),  iofo  from  Government  subsidies,  and  45$ 
from  other  sources.  The  communities,  moreover, 
possessed  property  utilised  for  public  purposes  to 
the  following  aggregate  amounts:  Schoolhouses 
valued  at  64  millions  of  crowns,  poor  houses  18 
millions,  town  halls  and  parish  assembly  rooms 
54  millions,  hospitals  6  millions,  gas  and  electrical 
works  26  millions,  and  water- works  21  millions, 
equivalent  to  37.80  crowns  per  head  of  the  popula- 
tion. In  most  towns,  the  water  supply  and  light- 
ing, both  gas  and  electricity,  and  in  some  cases 
the  local  communications,  such  as  tramways, 
electric-cars,  and  omnibuses,  are  in  the  hands  of 
the  Town  Councils.  In  the  towns,  hospitals  and 
sanitary  administration,  justice,  police,  and  public 
safety,  public  works  and  local  embellishments, 
and  the  regulation  of  the  liquor  trade  and  of 
public  amusements  belong  to  the  Town  Council, 
while  Church,  school,  and  poor-relief  are  left  to 
the  care  of  the  Church  vestries.  In  the  rural 
districts  these  duties  are  divided  between  the 
County  Councils  and  the  communal  authori- 
ties. All  alike  are  dependent  on  the  vote  of  the 
parishes. 

According  to  the  latest  returns  available,  4.8$ 
of  the  population  were  in  receipt  of  poor-relief; 
viz.,  176,418  in  the  poor-houses,  and  65,559  re- 
ceiving outdoor  aid, — this  being,  of  course,  en- 
tirely independent  of  private  charities, — while 
79,750  patients  were  treated  gratuitously  in  the 
hospitals  during  an  aggregate  of  2,548,461  days, 


1 86  Swedish  Life 

being  15.84  patients  and  506  days  per  thousand 
inhabitants.  Every  second  inhabitant  had  thus 
for  one  day  in  the  year  been  admitted  gratuitously 
in  a  public  hospital.  Hospital  relief  and  medical 
assistance  at  the  hospital  dispensaries  are  open 
gratuitously  to  all.  Claim  to  poor-relief  is  pos- 
sessed by  all  who  through  extreme  youth,  old  age, 
or  physical  infirmities  are  unable  to  provide  for 
themselves  and  have  no  one  to  provide  for  them. 
In  other  cases,  the  dispensing  of  relief  is  optional 
and  is  left  to  the  decision  of  the  poor-relief  com- 
missioners. Begging  is  forbidden  by  law,  and 
can  be  made  an  indictable  offence. 

An  approximate  calculation,  based  principally 
on  the  municipal  electoral  census,  gives  the  follow- 
ing proportions  of  wealth  and  indigence  among 
the  population  of  the  country : 

In  wealthy  circumstances 13-75  % 

In  easy  circumstances 67.05  % 

In  straitened  circumstances  (having  less  than 

the  necessary  means  of  subsistence) !5-93  % 

In  poverty  (entirely  deprived  of  the  means  of 

subsistence) 3. 27  % 1 

Those  in  the  last-named  category  were  all  in  re- 
ceipt of  poor-relief,  besides  one  third  of  the  last 
but  one,  those  in  straitened  circumstances,  who 
were  occasionally  assisted.  The  relief  given  con- 
sists of  lodging,  board,  and  clothing  in  the  poor- 
houses,  or  of  payment  for  board  and  lodging  in 

^Sveriges  Land  och  Folk,  G.  Sundbarg. 


Public  Life  and  Morality      187 

cases  where  the  poor  are  taken  over  for  a  fixed 
sum  a  year  by  peasants  in  the  country.  The  out- 
of-door  relief  is  given  in  money  or  in  kind — articles 
of  food  and  clothing — to  those  who  live  at  home 
or  with  relatives  in  straitened  circumstances. 

The  death-rate  in  Sweden  is  16.49  Per  thousand, 
which  is  probably  the  lowest  in  the  world,  or  at 
all  events  in  Europe.  The  average  length  of  life 
is  proportionately  high.  This  is  in  a  great  measure 
due,  next  to  the  general  healthiness  of  the  climate, 
to  the  absence  of  very  great  agglomerations  of 
population  and  industrial  overcrowding,  to  the 
extent  and  efficiency  of  the  public-health  institu- 
tions, and  the  medical,  sanitary,  and  hospital 
services  of  the  country.  These  are  all  under  the 
care  of  the  local  authorities,  the  County  Councils, 
and  communal  bodies  in  the  country,  the  Town 
Councils  and  their  special  Boards  of  Health  in 
the  towns,  all  acting  under  the  general  super- 
vision and  guidance  of  the  Central  Medical  Board 
{Medicinal  Styrelse).  The  authority  of  this  ex- 
tends, through  its  infinite  ramifications,  to  every 
hamlet  in  the  country.  It  would  be  superfluous 
to  enter  here  into  all  the  details  of  the  system, 
which  has  of  late  years  reached  a  very  high  degree 
of  development.  Its  efficiency  may  be  judged 
from  its  result,  the  diminution  of  the  death-rate, 
which,  from  26.8  per  thousand  in  1801,  and  21.2 
in  1850,  has  fallen  to  16.5. 

The  question  of  combating  tuberculosis,  which 
has  of  late  years  occupied   the   public   mind   in 


1 88  Swedish  Life 

almost  all  countries,  has  received  special  considera- 
tion in  Sweden.  In  1897,  tne  year  °f  tne  King's 
jubilee,  a  national  subscription  was  raised  in  com- 
memoration of  the  event  and  it  produced  3,500,000 
crowns.  This  sum  the  King  devoted  to  the  erec- 
tion of  special  sanatoria  for  tuberculous  patients. 
To  complete  the  amount  necessary,  the  Riksdag 
voted  an  additional  sum  of  850,000  crowns.  Three 
large  public  establishments  have  been  created, 
one  in  the  North,  Osterasen  in  the  province  of 
Angermanland;  one  in  Central  Sweden,  Halahult, 
in  the  province  of  Nerike;  and  a  third  at  Hessleby 
in  Smaland  for  Southern  Sweden.  They  contain 
accommodation  for  100  patients  each.  In  addi- 
tion, the  Town  Council  of  Stockholm  has  founded 
a  special  establishment  in  the  vicinity  of  the  town 
for  the  treatment  of  tuberculosis. 

The  clergy  of  the  Swedish  Church  are  almost 
all  university  men.  The  degree  they  must  take 
to  be  ordained  requires  a  minimum  of  five  years 
at  the  university,  the  course  comprising  philoso- 
phy and  some  of  the  sciences,  as  well  as  theology. 
The  salary  of  a  priest  at  the  head  of  a  parish 
averages  from  3  to  5  thousand  crowns  a  year,  and 
that  of  a  curate  from  1500  to  2000  crowns,  besides 
free  lodgings.  These  salaries  vary  according  to 
the  wealth  and  importance  of  the  parish.  Taking 
the  statistics  compiled  by  a  special  commission 
appointed  by  Government  in  1897  to  inquire  into 
the  condition  and  emoluments  of  the  clergy,  it  is 
found  that,  out  of  1368  parish  priests,  only  23  had 


Public  Life  and  Morality      i8g 

a  salary  of  more  than  10,000  crowns  (^555),  while 
171  had  less  than  3000  crowns,  the  average  being 
4709  crowns  (^261).  The  salaries  of  957  curates 
averaged  1743  crowns  (^96  16s.  6d.).  The  princes 
of  the  Church  are  better  off,  and  yet  they  receive  in 
crowns  only  about  what  English  bishops  receive 
in  pounds  sterling.1  The  Primate  of  Sweden,  the 
Archbishop  of  Upsala,  is  paid  18,000  crowns  a 
year,  and  has  the  archiepiscopal  palace  to  live  in 
and  keep  up.  The  salaries  of  the  1 1  bishops  range 
from  10  to  15  thousand  crowns  a  year.  Even  in 
regard  to  the  bishops  the  elective  system  prevails. 
They  are  elected  by  the  clergy  of  the  diocese,  who 
have  to  present  a  list  of  three  candidates  to  the 
King,  with  whom  lies  the  final  choice. 

The  total  number  of  priests  in  office  in  Sweden 
in  1900  was  2800,  being  one  for  every  1800  inhabi- 
tants, and  their  aggregate  salaries  amounted  to  a 
little  over  io}4  million  crowns,  or  2.20  crowns 
(2s.  \d.~)  per  head  of  the  population.  The  clerical 
livings  fall  into  three  different  categories.  About 
500  are  royal  benefices,  the  appointment  to  which 
belongs  to  the  King;  about  700  are  consistorial 
benefices,  the  holders  of  which  are  appointed  by 
the  consistories;  and  the  rest  are  patronal,  the 
patron  of  the  church  having  the  right  to  nominate 
the  parson  in  charge.  In  each  case,  however,  the 
right  of  the  congregation  to  elect  their  priest  is 
recognised,  as  they  nominate  the  three  candidates 

1  £\  sterling  =  18  crowns. 


i9°  Swedish  Life 

among  whom  the  choice  has  to  be  made  by  the 
King,  the  Consistory,  or  the  Church  patron  re- 
spectively. 

In  view  of  the  religious  instruction  of  his  con- 
gregation, the  clergyman  is  called  upon,  besides 
holding  religious  classes  for  children,  to  make 
domiciliary  visits  (Jiusfbrhbr)  among  his  parish- 
ioners, so  as  to  ascertain  the  state  of  their  religious 
instruction  and  to  "  instruct,  direct,  and  advise" 
them  in  religious  matters.  He  has  charge  of  the 
parish  registers,  including  those  of  births,  deaths, 
and  marriages,  and  of  arrivals  in  or  departures 
from  the  parish.  These  registers  form  the  basis 
of  the  census  and  of  the  taxing  commissioners' 
estimates. 

The  Swedish  State  Church  is  Lutheran,  based 
on  "  the  pure  Evangelical  doctrine  of  the  Augs- 
burg Confession"  as  originally  defined  by  the 
Council  of  Upsala  in  1593.  There  are  compara- 
tively few  dissenters  from  the  State  Church,  in  all 
about  37,000  Baptists  and  5000  Methodists.  Of 
other  denominations  there  are  about  1500  Roman 
Catholics  and  3500  Jews. 

For  the  purposes  of  provincial  administration, 
Sweden  is  divided  into  twenty-four  provinces  or 
counties  (Lati),  including  the  capital,  which  forms 
\  an  independent  district  by  itself.  At  the  head  of 
each  Lan,  or  county,  is  a  Provincial  Governor 
{Landshbfding) ,  who  is  appointed  by  the  Govern- 
ment and  aided  by  a  Provincial  Secretary  and  a 
Provincial  Treasurer,  who  are  also  State  function- 


Public  Life  and  Morality       191 

aries,  and  a  County  Council  elected  by  the  munici- 
palities in  the  towns  and  the  parish  delegates 
in  the  rural  districts.  The  County  Councils  ad- 
minister the  finances  of  the  province  and  have 
charge  of  its  public  communications  (roads,  and 
traffic),  public  health  (hospitals,  infirmaries,  and 
asylums),  and  public  safety  (police  and  prisons). 
They  also  exercise  the  important  political  function 
of  electing  the  members  who  represent  the  pro- 
vince in  the  First  Chamber  or  Upper  House,  who 
are  elected  in  the  second  degree,  the  members  of 
the  Second  Chamber  or  L,ower  House  being  alone 
elected  direct  by  the  qualified  voters. 

Justice  in  the  rural  districts  is  administered  by 
the  District  Bench  (Harads)-att),  an  old-fashioned 
court  of  justice  dating,  in  its  main  features,  from 
the  laws  of  1734.  This  court  judges  in  the  first 
instance  in  all  causes,  civil  and  criminal,  and 
holds  its  assizes  in  two  or  three  centres  of  the 
district.  It  is  composed  of  a  judge — a  judicial 
officer  of  high  rank  appointed  by  Government — 
and  twelve  assessors  or  jurymen  elected  by  the 
district.  These  need  not  have  had  a  judicial 
training,  and  are  chosen  for  their  local  knowledge 
and  standing,  and  their  personal  character.  Seven, 
at  least,  of  the  twelve  district  jurymen  must  be 
present  to  form  a  quorum  of  the  court.  They 
have  the  casting  vote,  the  judge  only  intervening 
in  case  of  divided  opinions.  Trial  by  jury,  as 
understood  in  other  countries,  has  never  been 
adopted  in  Sweden,  and  the  reason  may  be  sought 


192  Swedish  Life 

in  the  traditional  attachment  of  the  Swedes  to 
this  old  institution  of  their  own,  which  resembles 
it  in  many  respects,  and  offers  more  or  less  equal 
guarantees  against  judicial  delays,  excessive 
routine,  and  official  dependency  in  courts  formed 
exclusively  of  trained  judges  appointed  by  the 
State.  In  towns,  the  corresponding  tribunal  con- 
sists of  the  mayor  and  two  or  more  magistrates, 
all  elected,  but  appointed  by  Government  out  of  a 
list  presented  by  the  electorate.  A  sort  of  modi- 
fied jury  system  obtains  exceptionally  in  actions 
for  libel  connected  with  the  Press.  These  are 
judged  by  a  magistrate  assisted  by  nine  jurymen, 
of  whom  three  are  designated  by  each  of  the 
parties  of  the  suit,  and  three  are  appointed  by  the 
court.  There  are  three  Courts  of  Second  Instance, 
to  which  decisions  of  the  lower  Court  can  be  re- 
ferred for  revision,  and  a  general  Court  of  Appeal, 
the  High  Court,  which  is  the  last  resort. 

One  of  the  most  important  functions  of  these 
local  governing  bodies  consists  in  the  regulation 
of  the  liquor  traffic.  The  licensing  of  dealers  in 
liquor  belongs  to  the  Town  Councils  in  the  cities, 
and  the  Communal  Boards  in  the  rural  districts, 
subject  to  the  vote  of  the  electorate,  which  may 
be  prohibitive,  the  local  option  being  in  the  hands 
of  the  members  of  the  parish.  To  the  efforts  of 
the  communal  authorities,  in  circumscribing  and 
diminishing  the  local  sale  of  liquor,  and  in  organ- 
ising counter  attractions,  the  diminution  of  drunk- 
enness in  late  years  is  due,  quite  as  much  as  to 


Public  Life  and  Morality      193 

the  temperance  legislation  of  the  Riksdag,  which 
rendered  these  measures  possible,  and  the  general 
temperance  movement  among  the  public  which 
led  to  them.  Until  about  the  middle  of  the  last 
century,  Sweden  enjoyed  the  sad  distinction  of 
being  the  most  drunken  country  in  Europe,  or  at 
least  the  one  that  consumed  the  largest  amount 
of  raw  spirits  in  proportion  to  its  population. 
The  consumption  of  bramivin,  or  home-made 
brandy,  containing  50$  of  pure  alcohol,  was 
about  40  litres  per  head  of  the  inhabitants.  It  is 
to-day  reduced  to  6.67  litres  per  head,  which, 
added  to  a  consumption  of  27.6  litres  per  head  of 
beer,  and  0.6  of  wine,  represents  4.50  litres  per 
head  of  pure  alcohol,  a  lower  consumption  than 
that  of  any  other  people  in  Europe,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  Norway  and  Finland.  Moreover,  about 
iofo  of  the  population  are  pledged  to  total  absti- 
nence. This  happy  result,  one  of  the  greatest 
victories  of  a  nation  over  itself,  has  been  due  to 
the  initiative,  perseverance,  and  dauntless  action 
of  one  man,  Peter  Wieselgren,  Canon  of  the  Ca- 
thedral of  Gothenburg,  who  gave  the  first  impulse 
to  the  temperance  movement,  which  finally  carried 
the  Legislature,  the  Executive,  and  the  local  gov- 
erning authorities  with  it. 

The  origin  of  the  public  drunkenness  of  Sweden, 
and  of  this  large  consumption  of  spirits,  which 
reached  its  highest  level  about  1830,  when  Canon 
Wieselgren  began  his  campaign,  may  be  traced 

back  to  the  laws  of  Gustavus  III.  in  1775,  which 
13 


194  Swedish  Life 

made  the  distilling  and  selling  of  spirituous  liquors 
a  State  monopoly,  and  one  of  the  principal  sources 
of  public  revenue.  The  consumption  of  spirits 
was  encouraged  in  every  way  in  order  to  increase 
the  receipts  of  the  Treasury.  Public  servants 
knew  they  might  count  upon  favour  by  inducing 
people  to  drink  by  every  means  in  their  power. 
Tea  and  coffee  were  prohibited  to  prevent  unde- 
sirable competition;  beer  was  unknown,  wine  rare; 
and  the  Government  produce  reigned  supreme. 
As  a  writer  of  the  time  puts  it :  "A  stream  of 
cheap  liquor  was  made  to  flow  over  the  country, 
and  was  poured  down  the  throats  of  the  people, 
making  of  every  Swede  a  drunkard,  and  of  drunk- 
enness a  national  blemish."  Linnaeus  was  the 
first  to  raise  his  gentle  voice  against  the  terrible 
Government  monopoly,  warning  the  public  au- 
thorities, from  a  scientific  point  of  view,  of  the 
awful  effects  of  drunkenness  and  alcoholism  in  a 
nation.  What  is  now  a  simple  truism  came  as  a 
revelation  in  those  days.  It  shamed  the  Govern- 
ment out  of  its  shocking  monopoly,  which  was 
abolished  in  1789.  But  a  worse  order  of  things 
succeeded  it.  The  distilling  and  sale  of  spirits 
became  absolutely  free.  Landed  proprietors  who 
had  corn  to  spare  made  spirits  as  an  easy  and 
lucrative  way  of  disposing  of  it.  Every  estate, 
every  farm,  set  up  its  distillery,  and  sold  the  sur- 
plus of  its  produce.  Agriculture  thus  became  in- 
terested in  increasing  the  output  and  in  fostering 
drunkenness.     The  evil  had  reached  its  culmina- 


Public  Life  and  Morality      195 

tion  when  Wieselgren  began  to  agitate  against  it, 
aided  by  the  famous  chemist  Berzelius,  and  by 
the  specialist  Magnus  Huss,  who  had  made  a  pro- 
found study  of  alcoholism,  his  work,  Alcoholismus 
ChronicuSy  one  of  the  earliest  exhaustive  treatises 
on  the  subject,  winning  him  the  prize  of  the 
French  Academy.  Wieselgren  preached  and 
wrote,  lectured  and  agitated  against  the  national 
evil,  as  he  called  it,  until  he  carried  public  opinion 
with  him,  and  finally  brought  about  a  complete 
reform  in  the  legislation  in  regard  to  the  manu- 
facture and  sale  of  intoxicating  liquors. 

In  order  to  limit  the  universal  distilling  of 
spirits  by  agriculturists  and  householders,  a  mini- 
mum production  was  imposed  on  distillers.  This 
minimum  was  at  first  fixed  at  7  litres  in  1831,  but 
was  raised  to  20  litres  in  1850,  to  600  litres  in 
i860,  and  finally  made  virtually  prohibitive  by 
being  fixed  at  3600  litres  in  1900.  A  tax  also 
was  levied  on  the  manufacture  of  spirits.  This 
tax,  which  was  at  first  19  ore  per  litre,  was  raised 
successively  to  30,  40,  and  50  ore  per  litre.  All 
private  and  retail  distilling  was  thus  rendered  im- 
possible, and  the  manufacture  of  liquor  was  cen- 
tralised in  the  hands  of  companies,  which  could 
be  more  easily  controlled  and  regulated.  It  was 
at  the  same  time  provided  that  the  inhabitants 
should  by  local  option  in  every  district  determine 
the  sale  or  not  of  liquor,  and  regulate  the  condi- 
tions on  which  the  companies  might  be  admitted 
to  retail  their  produce  within  the  district. 


196  Swedish  Life 

This  led  to  the  adoption  of  what  is  known  as 
the  "  Gothenburg  system,"  from  its  having  been 
first  applied  in  that  city  in  1865.  According  to 
this  system  the  monopoly  of  the  manufacture  and 
sale  of  spirits  is  conceded  to  a  company  which  is 
allowed  to  retain  only  a  fair  interest  on  the  capital 
employed  out  of  the  profits  of  the  trade,  and 
hands  over  the  surplus  to  the  community,  to  be 
employed  in  the  support  of  such  institutions  as 
may  tend  to  diminish  the  consumption  of  liquor 
and  combat  drunkenness.  The  company  is  guar- 
anteed 5$  on  its  capital  should  the  sale  fall  below 
a  certain  minimum.  This  system  has  the  great 
advantage  that  it  precludes  all  desire  on  the  part 
of  the  company  and  its  retail  sellers  to  increase 
the  sale  of  drink,  as  the  interest  on  the  capital 
employed  is  secured  and  is  not  liable  to  be  in- 
creased by  a  larger  output.  The  retail  seller  is, 
moreover,  allowed  to  cater  to  the  consumers'  other 
wants  in  food  and  non-alcoholic  drinks,  all  the 
profits  on  which  fall  to  him.  He  has  thus  every 
inducement  to  encourage  the  consumption  of  these 
in  preference  to  spirits,  on  which  he  has  no  profit. 
Eating-rooms  are  attached  to  the  retail  shops, 
where  good  and  wholesome  food  is  provided  at 
fixed  prices,  controlled  by  the  authorities,  and 
where  only  one  small  glass  of  liquor  may  be 
served  to  each  consumer.  To  sell  spirits  to  youths 
under  eighteen  years  of  age  is  forbidden,  and 
the  hours  of  sale  are  strictly  limited,  all  retail 
shops  closing  at  six  in  winter  and  at  seven  in 


Public  Life  and  Morality      197 

summer  on  week-days,  and  being  open  only  a  few 
hours  on  Sundays.  Out  of  the  profits  accruing 
to  the  town  from  the  sale  of  liquor,  counter- 
attractions  are  organised  as  deterrent  to  drinking, 
viz.,  reading-rooms,  free  libraries,  lectures,  Sun- 
day excursions,  sports  and  games,  and  they  have 
proved  a  great  success.  The  total  number  of 
visitors  to  the  seven  reading  rooms  at  Gothenburg 
exceeds  400,000  a  year.  Their  maintenance  costs 
the  town  about  16,000  crowns  yearly. 

The  Gothenburg  system  was  adopted  in  Stock- 
holm in  1877.  The  first  year  the  sales  of  the  com- 
pany to  which  the  monopoly  had  been  granted 
amounted  to  26  litres  per  head  of  the  inhabitants, 
but  it  is  now  reduced  to  16  litres  per  head.  The 
total  number  of  retail  shops  has  been  reduced  to 
230  for  the  whole  town,  being  one  for  every  2059 
inhabitants.  The  Gothenburg  system,  with  slight 
variations  adapted  to  local  circumstances,  is  now 
general  all  over  Sweden.  It  exists  in  eighty-three 
out  of  ninety-two  towns,  and  in  most  of  the  rural 
districts  where  local  option  has  not  preferred 
entire  prohibition.  This  is  the  case  in  many  pro- 
vinces, especially  those  of  the  North,  where  the 
retail  sale  has  been  entirely  prohibited  by  the  local 
vote.  The  number  of  licensed  retail  establish- 
ments for  the  whole  kingdom  has  thus  fallen  from 
216  per  hundred  thousand  inhabitants,  which  it 
was  in  1850,  to  81  in  1889;  the  total  number  of 
licences  granted  now  being  1021  permanent  and 
425  provisional  for  the  whole  kingdom,  of  which 


i98  Swedish  Life 

146  permanent  and  no  provisional  fall  to  the  rural 
districts,  and  875  permanent  and  315  provisional 
in  the  towns. 

The  system  may,  therefore,  be  said  to  have 
given  excellent  results.  In  the  opinion  of  ex- 
tremists, it  has  not  always  been  applied  in  strict 
accordance  with  its  main  principle.  In  certain 
districts,  part  of  the  revenue  accruing  to  the  com- 
munity from  the  surplus  profits,  over  and  above 
the  five  per  cent,  allowed  to  the  licensed  company, 
is  used  by  them  for  general  purposes,  to  diminish 
the  rates  and  alleviate  the  ratepayer,  instead  of 
being  employed  exclusively,  as  was  intended  by 
the  founders  of  the  system,  in  creating  deterrents 
and  counter-attractions  calculated  to  diminish  the 
consumption  of  drink  and  so  combat  drunkenness. 
It  is  a  matter  in  which  the  line  is  very  difficult  to 
draw.  The  temptation  to  employ  such  profits  in 
a  way  that  may  serve  several  purposes  at  once  and 
relieve  the  ratepayer  of  certain  expenses  is  natur- 
ally very  great.  Yet  the  cases  are  rare  in  which 
the  original  purpose  has  been  lost  sight  of,  and 
the  desire  to  combat  drunkenness  is  so  general 
that  no  public  authority  or  corporation  would 
dare  to  aim  at  increasing  the  profits  by  encour- 
aging a  larger  consumption  of  drink,  even  though 
it  could  show  that  a  diminution  of  rates  would  be 
the  consequence  of  a  larger  output.  The  temper- 
ance movement  has  spread  widely,  and  sunk 
deeply  into  the  public  conscience.  It  has  pene- 
trated all  classes  alike,  and  may  be  trusted  to 


Public  Life  and  Morality       199 

counteract  any  latent  indifference  to  the  effects 
of  such  a  disregard  of  the  principle  on  which  the 
Gothenburg  system  is  based,  and  to  which  it  owes 
its  undoubted  success. 

The  temperance  agitation  orignated  by  Wiesel- 
gren  was  not  founded  on  the  total  abstinence 
idea.  He  did  not  impose  a  "  pledge  "  on  his  ad- 
herents. His  aim  was  to  limit  consumption  and  to 
counteract  the  inducements  to  drink.  But  the 
tendency  of  late  years  has  been  more  in  the  direc- 
tion of  total  abstinence  and  of  regarding  the  pledge 
as  the  sole  safeguard  against  the  temptation  to 
drink.  The  total  abstainers — members  of  tem- 
perance orders  like  the  Good  Templars  and  Blue 
Ribboners — who  have  taken  the  pledge  now  repre- 
sent about  io<f0  of  the  population.  They  are 
powerfully  organised  and  very  active.  They  com- 
mand every  respect  and  their  influence  in  the 
main  has  been  most  beneficial.  They  have  failed, 
however,  to  universalise  their  programme  of  pro- 
hibition, or  to  extend  the  temperance  legislation 
to  all  fermented  drinks. 

The  total-prohibition  system  has  been  success- 
ful in  the  rural  communities,  where  the  inhabitants 
are  all  more  or  less  of  one  mind  and  where  public 
opinion  is  able  to  enforce  respect  for  their  decision. 
In  the  towns  and  larger  communities,  however, 
total  prohibition  leads  to  fraud  and  more  or  less 
open  defiance  of  the  law.  The  Gothenburg 
"limitation"  system  is  more  successful.  It  dis- 
courages what  it  cannot  absolutely  prevent  even  by 


200  Swedish  Life 

prohibition,  and  it  forbids  all  incitement  to  drink, 
deprives  it  as  much  as  possible  of  all  allurements, 
makes  the  drinking  bar  as  unattractive  as  it  can, 
and  provides  counter-attractions  alongside  of  it. 
Thus  it  fights  not  only  for  temperance  but  for 
civilisation,  for  a  higher  standard  of  life,  and  for 
the  physical  and  moral  health  of  the  people,  by 
endeavouring  to  introduce  bright  patches  into 
dull  grey  existences,  and  to  make  life  more  toler- 
able in  the  lower  strata  of  society.  Its  partisans 
hold  that  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten  it  is  sheer  ennui 
and  the  want  of  amusement  and  conviviality  that 
lead  to  drink.  The  system  does  not  extend  to  all 
fermented  drinks  indiscriminately.  Beer  is  not 
taxed,1  and  wine  only  pays  the  import  duty. 
Taken  in  moderation,  these  are  held  to  act  as  de- 
terrents from  the  infinitely  more  deleterious  raw 
spirits.  The  consumption  of  beer  and  wine  has, 
it  is  true,  increased,  yet  not  in  any  proportion  to 
the  diminution  of  the  consumption  of  spirits.  The 
following  table  shows  the  relative  consumption  of 
beer,  wine,  and  spirits  per  head  since  the  general 
adoption  of  the  Gothenburg  system: 


Spirits  of 
50  %  alcohol. 

Beer. 

Wine. 

Total 
pure  alcohol 

1871-75  litres. 

•      H.83 

16.4 

O.81 

6.65 

1876-80    "     . 

.      IO.IO 

17.0 

0.72 

5-  80 

1881-85    "     . 

.        8.02 

19.2 

O.68 

4.81 

1886-90    "     . 

•       7-13 

24-3 

0.54 

4-59 

1891^95     "     • 

.       6.67 

27.6 

O.62 

4.5o 

1  It  will  be  taxed  in  future,  a  Bill  having  been  passed 
by  the  Riksdag  to  that  effect. 


CO 

u 

I- 
CO 
O 
O 


.4 


< 

CO 

< 

Ol 


IB 


Public  Life  and  Morality      201 

In  comparison  with  the  consumption  of  liquors 
in  other  countries,  the  relative  consumption  of 
fermented  liquors  of  all  kinds  is  also  favourable 
to  Sweden,  as  will  be  seen  from  the  following 
comparison  of  the  average  annual  consumption  in 
litres  for  the  years  1891-95: 

Spirits.  Beer.  Wine. 

Great  Britain  and  Ireland  5.20  135.0  1.7 

Denmark 16.0  106.0  1.5 

Netherlands 8.33  34.6  2.0 

Belgium 970  183.6  3.9 

Germany 8.80  109.6  5.7 

Austria-Hungary 9.00  39.2  14.2 

Switzerland 6.12  51.9  60.7 

France 8.54  22.8  112.3 

Italy 1.25  6.6  96.5 

Spain 1.00  1.3  115.0 

Portugal 1. 00  1.0  95.6 

Russia 9.40  4.6  3.3 

Sweden 6.67  27.6  0.6 

Public  morality  has  improved  in  a  corresponding 
degree  to  the  diminution  in  drunkenness.  The 
yearly  average  of  convictions  for  crimes  and  severe 
misdemeanours  has  sunk  from  53  per  hundred 
thousand  inhabitants  in  1861-65  to  41.5  in  1891- 
95;  and  the  illegitimate  births  from  37.9  per  thou- 
sand unmarried  women  and  widows,  between  the 
ages  of  twenty  and  forty-five,  in  1876-85  to  36.1 
in  1886-95.  Divorces  and  suicides  show,  on  the 
contrary,  a  considerable  increase,  but  other  and 
very  different  causes  operate  to  influence  these. 
Divorce  is  comparatively  easy  in  Sweden.  In 
addition  to  the  usual  pleas  of  infidelity,  ill-treat- 
ment, or  desertion,  mutual  consent  on  the  part  of 


202  Swedish  Life 

the  conjugal  parties  is,  practically  speaking,  suffi- 
cient to  secure  it.  A  fiction  is  resorted  to  which 
suffices  to  fulfil  the  requirements  of  the  law,  the 
presumption  of  collusion,  which  in  England  would 
nullify  the  proceedings,  not  being  as  strictly  taken 
into  consideration  by  the  Swedish  courts.  The 
procedure  is,  therefore,  simple.  One  of  the  parties 
concerned — generally  by  mutual  arrangement — 
leaves  the  country  for  a  while  and  takes  up  his  or 
her  abode  abroad.  The  other  sues  for  a  divorce 
on  the  plea  of  desertion.  The  absent  party  is 
summoned  by  the  court  to  return  to  the  conjugal 
domicile  within  a  given  time,  and  on  a  categorical 
refusal  to  do  so,  legally  ascertained,  the  divorce  is 
pronounced.  The  number  of  divorces  pronounced 
in  Sweden  in  1900  was  61.3  per  million  inhabi- 
tants, as  compared  with  50  in  1881-90  and  43.9  in 
1871-80. 

Suicides,  again,  have  increased  from  6.47  a  year 
per  hundred  thousand  inhabitants  in  1831-50  to 
7.21  in  1851-70,  9.71  in  1871-90,  and  14.40  in 
1 891-1900.  The  greatest  increase  is  noted  in  the 
categories  of  elderly  unmarried  men  and  young 
unmarried  women.  It  is  a  high  ratio,  which  is 
surpassed  only  in  France,  Germany,  and  Den- 
mark. It  is  much  lower,  however,  than  that  in 
Saxony,  which  in  this  respect,  as  in  illegitimate 
births,  ranks  foremost  in  Europe.  In  England, 
thanks  to  the  pity  and  humane  feeling  of  coroner's 
juries,  suicide  mostly  goes  under  the  name  of 
"temporary  insanity."     So  it  is,   no  doubt,  in 


Public  Life  and  Morality      203 

most  cases,  but  the  Swedish  police  courts  class  all 
cases  under  the  simple  category  oifelo  de  se.  The 
Church  has  ever  regarded  suicide  as  a  heinous 
offence.  According  to  the  old  Church  regula- 
tions, those  who  had  committed  suicide  were  not 
allowed  Christian  burial.  They  were  to  be  buried 
"  in  silence,"  i.  e.,  without  the  usual  funeral  ser- 
vice in  church.  Here,  however,  the  more  humane 
"temporary  insanity"  view  has  prevailed.  A 
recent  Act  of  Parliament  provides  that  no  distinc- 
tion shall  be  made  in  the  burial  of  suicides,  as 
well  out  of  regard  for  the  moral  irresponsibility  of 
the  act  as  for  the  feelings  of  the  surviving  rela- 
tives. Poverty  and  economic  stress  are  rarely 
the  leading  causes  of  suicide,  although  they  may 
sometimes  combine  with  other  causes,  like  disap- 
pointment, melancholy,  nervous  strain,  and  revolt 
at  privations  in  the  higher  exigencies  of  modern 
life,  which  suddenly  make  the  wear  and  tear  of 
existence  seem  intolerable.  Nervous  irritability 
attains  morbid  proportions,  which  the  slackened 
religious  feeling  is  unable  to  counteract,  and  so 
the  increase  of  suicides  may  in  this  respect  be  an 
eloquent  sign  of  the  times. 

The  Swede  is  famous  for  his  honesty,  his  kind- 
liness, his  individualism,  and  his  contemplative- 
ness.  But  he  has  two  great  enemies, — drink, 
which  turns  his  feeling  of  independence  into  wild, 
ungovernable  fury,  and  melancholy,  which,  under 
stress  of  circumstances,  easily  degenerates  into 
fatal  brooding  and  despair. 


CHAPTER  IX 


AGRICULTURE,    INDUSTRY,    AND   TRADE 


OF  the  44,786,000  hectares,  (about  no  million 
acres)  which  form  the  area  of  Sweden, 
3,666,739  hectares  are  covered  by  lakes  and  rivers, 
4,996,000  are  under  cultivation,  19,985,000  are 
taken  up  by  forests,  and  16,138,000  are  unculti- 
vated. This  uncultivated  area  comprises  not 
only  the  waste  lands — hills,  sands,  and  morasses — 
but  the  land  occupied  by  towns,  roads,  railways, 
factories,  and  mines.  The  proportions  are  thus: 
Agricultural  lands,  12.1$  of  the  total  area;  forests, 
48.6$  of  the  total  area;  other  land  and  water,  39.3$ 
of  the  total  area.  Every  Swede,  man,  woman, 
and  child,  may  thus  be  said  to  possess  an  estate 
of  2oy2  acres,  of  which  9^  are  woodland,  2%  are 
under  cultivation,  and  7^  are  uncultivated  land, 
but  possibly  the  site  of  habitations,  factories,  or 
mines,  and  thus  the  source  of  industrial  or  mineral 
wealth,  while  1%  form  part  of  a  lake  or  a  river  in 
which,  as  a  rule,  there  is  good  fishing.  As  as- 
sessed for  taxation,  the  total  land  and  house 
property  of  the  nation  has  (1900)  a  value  of 
4698  million  crowns.     Of  this  2358  millions  repre- 

204 


Agriculture,  Industry,  Trade    205 

sent  agricultural  property,  and  2340  town  prop- 
erty. Town  and  country  are  thus  about  equal  in 
landed  wealth.  The  ratio  per  inhabitant  would 
be  47 1  ^  crowns  in  agricultural  property  and  468 
in  town  property. 

The  aggregate  national  estate  produces  the  fol- 
lowing annual  revenue:  Agriculture,  450  million 
crowns;  industry,  1046  million  crowns;  forests, 
200  million  crowns;  mining,  100  million  crowns, 
fisheries,  7  million  crowns;  shipping,  45  million 
crowns;  giving  a  ratio  per  head  of  the  population 
of  90  crowns  in  agricultural  produce,  200  crowns 
in  industry,  40  crowns  in  lumber  production  of 
the  forests,  20  crowns  in  mineral  wealth,  1.40 
crowns  in  the  fishing  of  lakes,  rivers,  and  seas, 
and  9  crowns  per  head  are  earned  by  shipping; 
while  the  country's  trade,  which  is  represented 
(1903)  by  441,450,000  crowns  of  exports  and  534, 
891,000  crowns  of  imports,  a  total  of  976,341,000 
crowns  (,£54,241,000),  averages  about  187  crowns 
per  head,  viz.,  84  crowns  in  exports  and  103 
crowns  in  imports.  The  balance  of  trade  is  de- 
cidedly against  the  Swede,  as  he  imports  nearly 
one  fifth  more  than  he  exports;  but  then  econo- 
mists have  told  him  that  he  need  not  mind  that, 
and  he  manages  to  make  up  the  difference  by 
what  he  earns  by  his  shipping,  his  industry,  and 
his  inventions,  which  are  patented  and  worked 
both  at  home  and  abroad,  whether  it  be  in  the 
manufacture  of  dynamite,  of  smokeless  powder 
and  machine-guns,   of  telephones  and  electrical 


206  Swedish  Life 

apparatus,    or    of    cream-extractors    and    dairy 
utensils. 

^--Agriculture  is,  however,  his  principal  occupa- 
tion, as  it  is  one  of  the  principal  sources  of  his 
wealth.  It  employs  more  than  half  the  popula- 
tion, viz.,  2,843,000  or  55.78$  of  the  inhabitants. 
Industry,  including  the  working  of  the  forests  and 
mines,  occupies  1,361,000,  or  26.70$;  and  trade 
and  transport — shipping,  railways,  carting — only 
employ  128,000  or  10.36$.  The  rest,  7.16$  repre- 
sent the  services  and  professions,  including  the 
Army  and  the  Navy. 

The  Army  does  not  deprive  agriculture  and  in- 
dustry of  many  workers,  nor  does  it  long  keep 
those  who  have  to  be  trained  in  it.  The  standing 
army  consists  of  39,250  men  all  told,  1958  officers 
and  37,292  non-commissioned  officers  and  men, 
with  6895  horses.  It  comprises  6  army  corps,  30 
regiments  of  infantry  (81  battalions),  50  squad- 
rons of  cavalry,  40  batteries  of  field  artillery  and  8 
of  fortress  artillery,  with  17  battalions  of  engineers 
and  army  service  men.  The  officers  are  formed 
in  the  Military  School  of  Carlberg,  after  serving 
two  years  as  volunteers  in  the  Army  and  going 
through  all  the  ranks  as  non-commissioned 
officers,  with  a  finishing  course  at  the  Military 
High  School  and  the  Riding  School  at  Stroms- 
holm.  One  year  of  his  life  every  male  youth  of 
the  age  of  twenty-one  must  spend  in  the  Army  or 
the  Navy  to  be  trained  as  a  soldier  or  a  sailor,  and 
rendered  capable  of  defending  his  country  in  case 


Agriculture,  Industry,  Trade    207 

of  need.  After  that  he  enters  the  first  reserve 
until  he  is  forty,  and  then  the  second  reserve  until 
he  is  sixty.  By  calling  out  the  first  reserve,  the 
A;my  is  raised  to  290,533  officers  and  men;  by 
calling  out  the  second  reserve,  to  500,000,  or  nearly 
10$  of  the  whole  population;  though  on  its  peace 
footing  it  hardly  comprises  0.8$  of  the  inhabitants. 
The  Navy  consists  of  3816  permanent  officers  and 
men,  and  a  reserve  of  about  25,000  men.  The 
youths  who  perform  their  military  service  (bevar- 
ing)  in  the  fleet  have  to  be  trained  for  one  }^ear 
and  go  afterwards  to  form  this  reserve  from  which 
the  Navy  draws,  in  case  of  need,  all  the  men 
it  may  require.  The  fleet  consists  of  10  iron- 
clad turret-ships,  4  ironclad  monitors,  9  ironclad 
cruisers,  3  corvettes,  and  10  gunboats,  30  torpedo- 
boats,  and  1  torpedo-boat  destroyer;  in  all,  67 
ships  of  61,200  tons  displacement,  112,410  horse- 
power, and  338  guns  armament,  not  counting 
training-ships.  The  officers  of  the  Navy  are 
formed  in  the  Naval  Cadet  School,  where  they 
have  to  go  through  a  six  years'  course,  during 
which  eight  months  of  the  year  are  spent  in 
the  school  and  four  months  on  board  ship  in 
navigation. 

The  merchant  shipping  consists  of  282 1  ships — 
817  steam-ships,  and  2004  sailing-ships — of  a  uni- 
fied tonnage  of  1,089,374  tons,  employing  about 
25,000  seamen.  The  deep-sea  fishing  population 
is  estimated  at  about  50,000,  possessing  a  con- 
siderable   fleet   of  fishing   smacks,   and   earning 


208  Swedish  Life 

about  6  million  crowns  a  year,  i  million  repre- 
senting the  inland  fisheries  of  the  lakes  and 
rivers. 

The  agricultural  classes  own  in  five  cases  out 
of  six  the  land  they  cultivate.  There  are  in 
Sweden  (1901)  334,360  agricultural  holdings,  of 
which  283,000  are  held  by  owners  and  51,000  by 
tenants  of  the  land  they  cultivate.  About  23$  of 
these  holdings  are  very  small,  i.  e.,  7  to  10  acres 
of  arable  land,  not  counting  forest  and  pasturage; 
66$  consist  of  from  10  to  50  acres,  and  10$  of  from 
50  to  300  acres.  Only  about  3000  holdings  are 
larger  than  300  acres,  ranging  then  between  300 
and  several  thousand.  The  great  majority  are 
typical  Swedish  farms  of  from  150  to  200  acres,  in- 
cluding meadows,  pastures,  and  woodland,  farms 
which  can  be  managed  by  one  family  with  little 
or  no  help.  This  is  the  farmer  class  we  find 
scattered  all  over  the  land,  the  freehold  peasantry 
of  Sweden,  the  backbone  and  mainstay  of  the 
country.  The  peasant  cultivates  his  farm  alone 
with  his  family,  and  is  as  proud  of  it  and  as  in- 
dependent-spirited as  the  landlord  on  his  ancestral 
manor.  Many  of  these  peasants  are  quite  rich, 
live  comfortably,  and  show  a  certain  artistic  taste 
and  luxury  in  their  homes. 

The  farmhouse  is  generally  built  of  wood,  and 
painted  in  the  invariable  dull  red  proof  against  dry- 
rot.  It  is  rarely  more  than  one  story  high,  with  a 
verandah  or  archway  over  the  entrance,  and  con- 
sists of  a  large  middle  parlour  and  smaller  rooms 


Agriculture,  Industry,  Trade    209 

adjacent.  The  parlour,  which  adjoins  the  kitchen, 
is  also  the  dining-room  and  general  sitting-room, 
verv  often  bedroom  besides,  as  there  are  alcoves 
or  recesses  in  the  walls  around  it,  each  containing 
a  couch,  before  which  curtains  are  drawn.  The 
walls  are  hung  with  white  linen  stuffs,  woven  by 
the  women  on  their  looms  in  archaic  pictorial 
designs  in  red  and  blue,  scenes  from  the  Bible  and 
country  life,  trees,  houses,  and  arabesques  of  a 
naive  and  childlike  art. 

Of  the  smaller  holdings,  only  \yf0  are  held  on 
farming  leases;  the  rest  are  owned  by  the  culti- 
vators. Of  the  larger  holdings,  up  to  300  acres, 
30$  are  farmed,  and  of  the  still  larger,  up  to  500 
acres,  37$  are  farmed.  Here  we  enter  the  cate- 
gory of  the  large  estates  owned  by  the  noblemen. 
These  may  range  from  10,000  to  30,000  acres, 
forest,  pasturage,  and  arable  land,  and  are  gen- 
erally parcelled  into  several  holdings,  which  are 
let  as  independent  farms,  the  nobleman  reserving 
for  his  own  cultivation  the  home-farm,  which 
serves  as  a  model  farm  for  his  tenants,  and  as  an 
experimental  field  for  such  new  and  improved 
methods  of  culture  as  they  are  able  to  follow. 
The  dairy  is  also  on  the  home-farm,  and  the 
tenants  sell  their  milk  to  it,  or  take  a  share  in  its 
working  and  profits.  Dairies  are  now  established 
on  a  large  scale,  with  all  the  most  modern  im- 
provements, marble  floors,  ice-houses,  and  com- 
plicated machinery.     The  private  dairy  on  each 

farm  has  become  the  exception.     Farmers  in  a 
14 


210  Swedish  Life 

district  have  a  share  in  the  Common  Dairy 
(Andelsmejert)  which  they  supply  with  milk, 
taking  a  proportionate  share  in  its  returns. 

Sweden's  agriculturists,  forming  56$  of  the 
total  population,  produce  by  their  labour  enough 
farm  produce  to  feed  themselves  and  the  remain- 
ing 44$  of  the  inhabitants  who  are  employed  in 
industry  and  trade,  and  even  then  have  a  con- 
siderable balance  over  for  export.  The  average 
yearly  exports  of  agricultural  produce  have  a 
value  of  67  million  crowns.  The  home  con- 
sumption is  valued  at  about  400  million  crowns, 
consisting  of  the  following  amounts  per  head  an- 
nually: Meat,  38  kilo.;  wheat,  51  kilo.;  rye,  124 
kilo.;  potatoes,  242  kilo.;  butter,  11  kilo.;  and 
milk,  183  litres;  besides  270  kilo,  a  head  of  oats 
and  barley  consumed  by  the  horses.  Add  to  this, 
meat,  breadstuffs,  and  milk,  a  goodly  portion  of 
fish,  taken  in  the  lake  or  provided  by  the  cod  and 
herring  fishermen  of  the  coast,  and  you  have  the 
staple  food  consumption  of  the  Swedish  labourer. 
And  he  gets  it  all — with  the  exception  of  the  salt- 
herring —  off  his  farm,  which  is  self-supporting 
and  supplies  nearly  all  his  wants;  so  that  he 
rarely  has  to  go  beyond  it  to  supplement  his 
larder. 

Until  quite  lately,  the  women  used  also  to  pro- 
vide the  clothing,  both  for  the  men  and  the 
women.  They  spun  and  wove  the  wool  from  the 
sheep,  and  the  flax  from  the  fields,  and  made  stuffs 
and  linen  enough  to  supply  the  whole  household. 


Agriculture,  Industry,  Trade    211 

Some  do  so  still;  but  many  have  found  that  it  is 
easier  and  cheaper  to  buy  the  ready-made  cloth- 
ing sold  by  the  itinerant  pedlar.  Hence  the  old 
peasant  costumes  are  mostly  discarded  for  the 
calicoes  and  chintzes,  the  kerchiefs  and  the  cloth  of 
the  town  manufacturer.  The  women  have,  there- 
fore, in  a  great  measure  given  up  spinning  and 
weaving,  and  the  farmhouses  where  the  thump 
and  bang  of  the  loom  are  heard  throughout  the 
day,  as  the  farmer's  wife  and  her  daughters,  the 
dairymaid  and  servant  come  in  turn  and  take 
their  seat  at  it,  are  now  quite  the  exception.  In 
their  leisure  hours,  during  the  long  winter  even- 
ings, men  and  women  work  instead  at  home  sloyd 
(Hemslojd);  they  carve  wood  and  make  caskets 
and  toys,  plait  panniers  and  reticules,  or  cut  out 
bread  platters  and  tankards,  all  of  which  can  be 
disposed  of  at  the  market  town  or  bartered  for 
trinkets  and  bright  stuffs,  head-gear,  and  ready- 
made  clothing,  or  solid  bacon  and  good  salt- 
herring. 

As  I  have  already  mentioned,  the  peasant  home- 
stead, the  typical  habitation  of  these  rural  districts, 
is  isolated  and  forms  a  little  world  of  its  own.  The 
peasant  lives  on  his  own  land,  in  the  midst  of 
his  fields  and  pastures,  at  some  distance  from  his 
neighbours,  who  live  on  theirs.  The  church, 
standing  on  a  height  in  the  midst  of  the  landscape, 
and  the  nearest  market  town,  where  he  sells  his 
produce,  are  the  common  centres  at  which  he 
meets  them.     To  get  to  church  means  generally  a 


212  Swedish  Life 

long  row  over  the  lake  in  summer,  or  a  long  drive 
in  a  sledge  over  its  frozen  surface  in  winter;  and 
it  is  a  still  longer  way  to  cart  his  produce  to  town. 
It  is  not  often  he  can  spare  the  time  to  drive  to 
town,  and  as  he  is  in  most  cases  in  telephonic 
communication  with  it,  he  transacts  most  of  his 
business  by  wire.  But  he  rarely  fails  to  go  to 
church  on  Sunday.  It  is  for  him  a  social  as  well 
as  a  religious  gathering,  for  he  there  meets  the 
friends  and  neighbours  whom  he  rarely  sees  other- 
wise throughout  the  week.  The  Sunday  boat 
from  the  farm  to  church  is  generally  well  filled. 
Masters  and  servants  all  crowd  into  it  and  take 
their  turn  in  rowing  across  the  lake  to  the  distant 
church,  where  the  whole  day  is  passed.  He  may, 
however,  drive  over  in  his  cart,  sometimes  eight 
or  ten  miles,  and  "put  up  "  in  the  church-grounds 
during  service.  For  special  stabling  is  attached 
to  most  rural  churches  for  the  accommodation  of 
worshippers  from  a  distance,  so  that  the  grounds 
round  them  are,  during  service  time,  crowded 
with  unhitched  vehicles  of  all  sizes,  presenting 
the  appearance  of  a  popular  fair. 

In  most  rural  churches,  the  old  habit  still  pre- 
vails of  separating  the  sexes.  The  women  all  sit 
on  one  side  of  the  aisle,  the  men  on  the  other. 
The  services  are  long,  the  sermon  especially,  for 
the  peasant  and  his  family  would  resent  having 
travelled  so  far  if  the  function  did  not  correspond 
to  the  duration  of  their  journey.  In  old  days,  it 
would  appear  to  have  been  much  longer,  so  that 


I 


I 
o 

z> 

X 

o 

o 

H 

o 

z 

o 
o 


I 


Agriculture,  Industry,  Trade    213 

man}'  a  hearer  went  to  sleep  during  the  sermon. 
Hence  there  existed  a  special  church  functionary 
called  the  Kyrkostot,  or  "  church-awakener," 
whose  duty  it  was  to  walk  about  the  church  with 
a  long  stick  during  the  sermon  and  quietly  poke 
the  ribs  of  any  one  who  showed  signs  of  drowsi- 
ness. Either  the  sermons  are  now  much  shorter, 
or  the  modern  clergy  are  generally  more  eloquent 
and  their  sermons  more  impressive,  for  the  Kyr- 
kostbt  's  functions  have  been  abolished.  His  wand 
of  office,  the  long  poking-stick,  surmounted  with 
jangling  tangles  at  one  end,  is  still  shown,  how- 
ever, in  many  a  country  church  as  a  curious  relic 
of  the  past.  After  service,  the  congregation 
spread  about  in  groups  and  hold  neigbourly 
gatherings,  before  the  horses  are  put  into  the 
shafts,  the  boats  shoved  afloat  on  the  lake,  and 
the  homeward  journey  is  begun. 

Until  1880,  the  total  produce  of  breadstuff's  in 
home  agriculture  was  in  excess  of  the  consump- 
tion. The  farmer  produced  sufficient  for  himself 
and  the  industrial  workman  and  trading  towns- 
man, and  could  export  to  the  value  of  12  million 
crowns  as  well.  Now  industry  has  deprived  him 
of  one  tenth  of  his  labourers,  who  have  been  re- 
placed by  machinery,  but  must  be  fed  in  the 
towns  and  the  factories  where  they  are  at  work. 
The  farmer  has,  moreover,  taken  to  cattle-raising 
and  dairy-produce  in  preference  to  grain-growing. 
Nevertheless,  he  still  sows  4^  million  acres  yearly 
with  grain,  and  produces  2,350,000  tons  of  wheat, 


214  Swedish  Life 

rye,  barley,  and  oats,  which  represents  484  kilo, 
of  grain  per  head  of  the  population.  Out  of  this, 
however,  the  seed  for  next  year's  sowing  has  to 
be  deducted,  and  the  rest  is  no  longer  quite 
enough  for  the  home  consumption,  which  is  446 
kilo,  per  head.  The  factory  workman,  who  has 
left  the  country  for  the  town,  has  learned  to  feed 
well,  to  consume  more  bread  and  less  potatoes,  to 
drink  more  beer  and  less  milk.  The  town  popu- 
lation has  risen  from  23$  to  44$  of  the  whole,  that 
of  the  country  has  fallen  from  71.87$  to  55.78$, 
and  the  grain  consumption  per  inhabitant  has 
risen  from  237  kilo,  to  446  during  the  last  century. 
The  farmer  has  therefore  to  resign  himself  to  the 
fact  that,  in  spite  of  the  heavy  custom  duties  on 
Corn  devised  to  protect  him  against  foreign  com- 
petition, no  less  than  51^  million  crowns'  worth 
of  corn  has  to  be  imported  yearly. 

But  he  does  not  seem  to  mind  this.  He  is  now 
exporting  butter  and  live  stock  to  a  greater  value, 
and  prefers  to  grow  less  grain  and  more  forage  for 
the  high  feeding  of  his  cows.  In  some  cases,  too, 
he  has  taken  to  growing  cabbages,  peas,  beans, 
and  fruit  on  a  larger  scale,  for  easier  and  more 
rapid  means  of  communication  with  the  towns 
make  market-gardening  remunerative.  I  Since 
1878,  the  relative  area  devoted  to  forage  has  in- 
creased from  27  to  33$,  and  that  devoted  to  gar- 
dens, from  8.6  to  12.2$.  The  relative  proportion 
of  acreage  now  devoted  to  grain  and  other  produce 
stands  thus:   Grain,  49$;   potatoes,  5.8$;   cattle 


"      346 

cc 

II 

"       164 

t  ( 

l( 

"      255 

(1 

<( 

i6 

(( 

II 

"       161 

II 

II 

Agriculture,  Industry,  Trade    215 

food,  33^;  vegetables  and  fruit,  12.2$;  while  the 
live  stock  in  the  country  is  given  as  follows: 

Horses 523>°°°  being  103  per  1000  inhabitants. 

Cows 1,751,000 

Other  cattle . .      831,000 

Sheep 1,291,000 

Goats 79,000 

Pigs 816,000 

For  the  purpose  of  comparative  statistics  in  live 
stock,  the  Swedish  Bureau  of  Statistics  has 
adopted  the  term  "  unified  cattle,"  meaning  a 
fictitious  and  composite  animal  of  which  the 
milch  cow  is  the  unit  and  all  other  animals  the 
multiples;  viz.,  a  horse  is  equal  to  i|  cow,  a 
sheep  TV,  a  goat  ^,  a  pig  £  of  the  same.  Ac- 
cording to  this  ratio,  Sweden  possessed  in  1570, 
1,700,000  unified  cattle;  in  1805,  2,018,000;  in 
JSS0)  3.483,000;  in  1870,  4,169,000;  and  in  1898, 
5,063,000.  In  the  last  amount  are  included 
244,000  reindeer,  belonging  to  the  nomadic  L,aps  of 
the  North,  which  have  been  converted  into  48,000 
unified  cattle.  If  the  cattle  were  divided  amongst 
the  population,  every  Swede,  man,  woman,  and 
child,  would  possess  one  milch  cow  each,  whether 
in  the  shape  of  three  quarters  of  a  horse,  ten  sheep, 
twelve  goats,  four  pigs,  or  five  and  a  half  reindeer.1 

Thanks  to  the  farmer's  partiality  for  milch  cows 
and  his  care  of  his  dairy,  the  yearly  milk  produc- 
tion of  his  country  has  risen  from  1440  million 

1  Sveriges  Land  och  Folk,  G.  Sundbarg. 


216  Swedish  Life 

kilo,  in  1875,  to  1850  millions  in  1885,  2450  mil- 
lions in  1895,  and  2650  millions  in  1900.  Of  this 
amount,  about  30$  is  consumed  as  milk  and  cream, 
25$  is  used  for  fattening  calves,  and  45$  for  mak- 
ing butter  and  cheese.  Every  Swede  drinks  about 
a  half-kilo,  of  milk  a  day.  But  if  the  town  work- 
man, who  generally  prefers  beer,  is  excepted,  this 
adds  another  fraction  to  the  daily  consumption 
of  the  peasant,  who,  as  a  rule,  drinks  nothing  but 
milk.  Yet  not  all  townsmen,  among  the  working 
classes,  despise  milk.  In  almost  every  market- 
square  and  along  the  docks  in  Stockholm  may  be 
seen  wooden  stands  of  the  shape  and  appearance 
of  a  sentry-box  with  no  opening  to  it.  On  a  little 
shelf  running  round  it  are  large  tin  cups  chained 
to  the  stand,  and  a  tap  at  each  angle.  By  drop- 
ping a  half-penny  in  the  slot  over  the  tap  and 
holding  the  cup  under  it,  a  pint  of  hot  milk  runs 
into  it.  It  is  the  poor  man's  automatic  refresh- 
ment-room, and  crowds  stand  around  it.  The 
tank  of  hot  milk  inside  is  refilled  every  hour  or  so. 
At  the  rich  man's  "  automat  "  opposite,  you  will 
get  sandwiches,  hot  bouillon,  coffee,  or  tea,  on  the 
same  principle;  but  there  the  slot  requires  several 
pennies  before  it  will  move.  These  waiterless 
restaurants  are  to  be  found  in  every  street  about 
town,  and  are  very  much  frequented. 

The  total  dairy  produce  of  the  country  repre- 
sents a  value  of  46^2  million  crowns  a  year 
062,583,333).  The  export  of  butter— most  of 
which  goes  to  England — has  risen  from  6,098,000 


Agriculture,  Industry,  Trade    217 

crowns  in  1875,  to  39,512,000  in  1899;  the  export 
of  live  stock  from  6,867,000  crowns  in  1875,  to 
8,815,000  in  1890,  when  the  difficulties  connected 
with  the  sale  of  live  stock  to  England  and  Ger- 
many, in  consequence  of  the  severe  sanitary  regu- 
lations imposed  on  their  landing  in  these  countries, 
caused  a  rapid  decrease,  the  exports  falling  to 
1,358,000  crowns  in  1900.  This  decline  had  the 
effect  of  turning  the  farmer's  attention  more  than 
ever  to  his  dairy.  Dairy  produce  is  his  principal 
source  of  wealth.  Butcher's  meat  and  breadstuffs 
he  produces  for  home  consumption,  but  the  dairy 
occupies  the  chief  place  in  his  budget,  and  his  first 
care  is,  by  careful  selection  and  high  feeding,  to 
make  his  cows  give  the  maximum  of  milk,  viz., 
about  3000  litres  each  a  year. 

Nevertheless,  the  farmer  has  not  dropped  behind 
his  times  in  his  methods  of  tilling  his  fields.  He 
is  fully  aware  of  the  importance  of  artificial  ma- 
nures, of  regular  rotations,  and  of  all  the  practices 
of  intensive  cultivation,  and  he  has  learned  the 
advantages  of  a  free  use  of  machinery.  His  agri- 
cultural machines  are  mostly  of  native  manufac- 
ture, made  of  the  fine  steel  for  which  his  country 
is  renowned,  and  adapted  to  local  circumstances. 
Experience  has  taught  him  what  machines  suit 
his  soil  and  his  climate  best,  and  his  inventiveness 
has  devised  them,  or  modified  those  invented  by 
others,  so  as  to  suit  his  peculiar  needs.  He  has 
even  reached  the  stage  of  producing  them  in  suffi- 
cient quantities  and  at  such  prices  that  he  is  able 


218  Swedish  Life 

to  supply  other  nations  with  them,  and  Swedish 
"separators,"  "radiators,"  and  other  machines, 
have  attained  a  world-wide  renown.  The  yearly 
export  of  agricultural  machinery  amounts  to  over 
five  million  crowns,  while  the  imports,  which 
come  chiefly  from  America,  exceed  two  millions. 
The  productiveness  of  the  soil  varies  consider- 
ably according  to  latitude  and  local  conditions, 
and  also  according  to  the  extent  of  intensive  cul- 
tivation employed.  The  average  for  the  whole 
country  is  given  as  1.379  tons  per  hectare  for 
grain,  and  8.59  tons  per  hectare  for  potatoes.  To 
the  general  reader,  this  statistical  computation 
may  not  convey  any  very  definite  idea,  and  the 
following  equivalent  estimates  for  other  countries 
may  perhaps  make  it  clearer,  by  comparison  : 

Grain.  Potatoes. 

Decitons  per  hectare. 

England 18.03  JI4-7 

Belgium 17-97  152.5 

Holland 17.31  110.7 

Denmark , 15-57  81.7 

Germany 14.06  104.7 

Sweden 13-79  85.9 

United  States 11.97  85.7 

France n-44  74-4 

Italy 7.99  39.2 

Spain 7.90  75.0 

Russia 6.24  52.0 

The  position   of  Sweden    in    this   respect   is 
therefore  sixth  in  order,  after  England,  Belgium, 


Agriculture,  Industry,  Trade     219 

Holland,  Denmark,  and  Germany,  where  inten- 
sive cultivation  is  much  more  general.  It  is  super- 
ior to  that  of  other  countries,  America,  France, 
Italy,  Spain,  and  Russia,  where,  although  the  soil 
may  be  naturally  as  productive,  artificial  means  of 
fertilisation  are  less  commonly  used. 

Fifty  million  acres  of  natural  forest  place  Swe- 
den in  the  foremost  rank  as  a  timber- producing 
country.  She  would  probably,  however,  not 
have  drawn  all  the  advantages  she  does  from  her 
immense  forests,  situated  mostly  in  her  northern 
provinces,  if  nature  had  not  given  her  at  the  same 
time  a  system  of  rivers  running  right  through 
them  down  to  the  sea.  No  less  than  twelve  rivers, 
to  mention  only  the  most  important,  form  the  im- 
mense waterways  of  Norrland,  flowing  from  the 
hills  down  to  the  coast,  with  an  average  length  of 
350  kilometres,  a  fall  of  500  metres  and  a  volume 
of  water  of  from  210  to  460  cubic  metres  a  second. 
The  trees  are  felled  in  the  forest  during  the  winter, 
moved  to  the  water-edge  on  sledges  gliding  on  the 
hard  frozen  snow,  thrown  into  the  river  in  spring, 
and  floated  down  with  the  waters  throughout  the 
summer,  reaching  their  destination  towards  au- 
tumn. The  long  soaking  in  the  water  rather  im- 
proves the  timber  than  otherwise.  The  process 
of  floating  the  timber  from  the  forest  to  the  saw- 
mill, down  300  miles  of  river,  is  very  simple.  The 
logs  are  confided  to  the  waters  and  allowed  to  drift 
with  the  current,  thousands  upon  thousands  float- 
ing on  its  surface  till  they  reach,  after  months, 


220  Swedish  Life 

sometimes  years,  of  solitary  navigation,  the  broad 
dams  in  the  lowlands,  along  the  coast,  where  they 
are  received,  sorted,  and  sent  into  the  private 
canals  which  lead  them  to  the  saw-mills.  There 
they  are  forced  by  hydraulic  pressure  up  an  in- 
cline to  the  timber-yard,  where  they  await  their 
turn  to  be  sent  under  the  saws  that  turn  them  into 
planks  and  battens.  In  some  cases,  a  more  rapid 
process  is  employed.  The  logs  are  bound  together 
so  as  to  form  immense  rafts  (Grimma),  consisting 
of  several  thousand  logs  laid  crossways.  On  such 
a  raft,  a  party  of  hardy  navigators  take  their 
abode,  steering  it  down  the  stream  with  long 
poles.  It  is  an  exciting  and  adventurous  life 
which  these  raftsmen  lead,  being  confined  for 
months  to  their  moving  island,  drifting  through 
vast  silent  solitudes,  now  gliding  idly  in  mid- 
stream, now  carried  swiftly  over  rapids,  using 
their  long  poles  to  steer  clear  of  sharp  turnings 
and  shoals  or  rocks.  With  the  raft  system,  the 
descent  is  generally  performed  during  the  summer, 
and  the  final  destination  is  reached  before  winter 
sets  in  and  the  river  is  frozen.  This  is  not  always 
the  case  with  the  loose  drifting  logs,  which  get 
jammed  against  the  banks  and  stop  each  other's 
way,  blocking  the  whole  river.  The  raftsmen 
have  often  hard  work  to  disengage  such  a  block 
and  set  the  floating  masses  in  motion  again.  At 
best  their  progress  is  slow,  and  the  whole  mass  is 
generally  overtaken  by  the  winter  while  half-way, 
so  that  the  logs  become  ice-bound  and  have  to 


Agriculture,  Industry,  Trade    221 

await  the  return  of  summer  before  they  resume 
their  onward  drift  with  the  loosening  ice. 

The  aggregate  "floating  net,"  as  the  compli- 
cated system  of  rivers  and  canals,  leading  one  into 
the  other,  by  which  these  timber  logs  are  floated 
down  from  the  forests  to  the  coast,  is  called,  covers 
vast  areas.  It  forms  3500  kilometres  of  waterway 
in  the  province  of  Westerbotten  alone;  and  2700, 
in  that  of  Kopparberg.  The  enormous  amount 
of  deadlogs  drifting  down  these  waterways  may 
be  judged  from  the  fact  that  on  the  Angermau 
river  there  were  floated,  in  1889,  4,029,130  logs; 
on  the  Indal  river,  2,655,723  logs;  on  the  L,jung 
river,  2,027,154  logs;  on  the  Klar  river,  1,501,860 
logs,  and  on  several  minor  rivers  an  average  of 
800,000. 

The  annual  production  of  lumber  is  estimated 
at  about  thirty  million  cubic  metres.  Nearly  15 
to  20$  is  lost  in  the  forest  and  during  the  drifting 
process;  but  by  the  better  methods  of  cutting  and 
floating  that  are  being  now  introduced,  this  loss 
will  be  diminished.  Very  strict  measures  are  also 
being  adopted  to  prevent  over-cutting,  and  so  to 
maintain  the  felling  of  trees  within  the  ratio  of 
natural  growth.  Allowing  for  growth,  these  im- 
mense forests  are  practically  inexhaustible,  and 
represent  vast  national  wealth.  About  one  third 
of  them  belong  to  the  State,  which  derives  a  yearly 
revenue  of  seven  million  crowns  from  them.  They 
are  administered  by  the  Board  of  State  Domains. 
Two    thirds    belong   to  private   companies  and 


222  Swedish  Life 

different  communities  and  parishes.  In  the  vast 
regions  of  the  North,  the  raising  of  timber  is  the 
only  cultivation  possible,  and  there  are  other  re- 
gions where  trees  can  be  raised  more  profitably 
than  anything  else,  at  least  under  present  condi- 
tions. But  the  forest  is  found  everywhere.  There 
is  hardly  an  estate  of  any  extent  of  which  the  half 
is  not  forest — pine  forest  in  the  North,  pine,  birch, 
and  oak  in  the  Midlands,  more  birch  and  beech 
than  pine  and  fir  as  you  go  South.  There  are 
saw-mills  at  work  almost  all  over  the  country, 
and  the  peasant  gets  timber  for  his  house  and  fuel 
for  his  fire  mostly  for  the  cutting  and  carting. 
The  total  export  of  timber-planks,  battens,  and 
other  timber  material,  amounts  to  one  hundred 
and  fifty  million  crowns  yearly.  Iyarge  amounts 
are  used  for  pit  props,  railway  sleepers,  and  build- 
ing timber,  while  a  great  quantity  is  exported  in 
the  form  of  pulp  for  paper,  as  well  as  in  the  form  of 
matches,  paper,  furniture,  ready-made  houses  and 
huts,  doors  and  windows,  and  other  manufactured 
articles.  Sweden  is  one  of  the  principal  pur- 
veyors of  the  world  in  timber,  and  with  the  daily 
increasing  importance  of  her  native  industries, 
the  raw  material  is  being  more  and  more  abun- 
dantly replaced  in  export  by  the  ready-made 
article,  to  the  double  advantage  of  the  manu- 
facturer and  the  grower. 

For  many  years,  Sweden  was  also  the  world's 
principal  purveyor  in  iron  and  steel,  until  the 
use  of  coal  in  lieu  of  charcoal  in  smelting  ores 


Agriculture,  Industry,  Trade    223 

revolutionised  metallurgy,  and  deprived  her  of  this 
supremacy.  Sweden  possesses  no  coal-mines  of 
any  consequence,  and  her  charcoal  processes  could 
not  compete  with  the  coal  furnaces  of  those  who 
had  coal  at  their  doors,  except  in  the  finest  quali- 
ties of  iron  and  steel  commanding  a  high  enough 
price.  She  now  imports  over  ninety  million 
crowns'  worth  of  coal  yearly,  but  its  price  places 
her  at  a  disadvantage.  Nevertheless,  she  still 
furnishes  about  four  per  cent,  of  the  total  iron 
production  of  the  world.  The  amount  produced  in 
1901  was  528,375  tons  of  pig  iron,  worth  41,763,035 
crowns;  and  291,846  tons  of  wrought  iron  and 
and  steel,  worth  47,398,824  crowns.  Much  of  the 
iron  ore,  however,  has  to  be  exported  unsmelted, 
to  be  handled  in  countries  where  coal  is  cheaper. 
The  annual  export  of  this  mineral  amounts  to 
close  upon  two  million  tons,  of  which  a  million 
and  a  half  tons  go  to  Germany,  and  the  rest  to 
England,  France,  and  Belgium.  A  change  in 
this  respect  may  be  brought  about  by  the  process 
of  smelting  minerals  by  means  of  electricity,  which 
is  now  being  tried.  The  numerous  waterways  in 
existence  all  over  the  country  will  furnish  the 
water-power  necessary  for  the  generation  of  elec- 
tricity within  easy  access  when  once  the  process 
has  been  made  industrially  practicable.  The 
question  of  introducing  electric  motive  power  on 
the  railways  is  also  under  consideration.  The 
State  railways  cover  a  little  over  4000  kilometres, 
and  the  private  railways  7500,  forming  a  total  of 


224  Swedish  Life 

11,500  kilometres  of  line,  equivalent  to  21  kilo- 
metres for  every  10,000  inhabitants. 

The  absence  of  native  coal  operated  prejudicially 
for  a  long  time  against  the  development  of  Swe- 
den's industries,  and  a  system  of  protection  had 
to  be  resorted  to  in  order  to  counteract  this  disad- 
vantage and  give  industrial  enterprise  a  fair  chance 
at  the  start.  Since  then  its  development  has  been 
enormous,  and  Sweden  has  been  enabled  not  only 
to  convert  into  manufactures  most  of  the  raw  ma- 
terial she  formerly  used  to  export  for  foreign 
manufacture,  but  to  compete  in  the  home  market 
with  the  manufactures  of  other  countries  where 
she  has  herself  to  import  the  raw  material.  Her 
gross  industrial  output  now  amounts  to  more  than 
one  thousand  million  crowns  a  year  (^58,000,000). 
Sweden  has  thus  become  an  important  industrial, 
as  well  as  an  agricultural,  a  mining,  and  a  timber 
growing  country,  and  her  wealth  is  increasing  in 
consequence. 


CHAPTER  X 


RURAL   UFE 


IT  is  Midsummer's  Day,  the  24th  of  June,  next 
to  Christmas  the  greatest  festival  of  the  year 
in  Scandinavia.  The  Church  celebrates  it  as  St. 
John  the  Baptist's  day,  but  in  the  eyes  of  the  peo- 
ple it  is  very  much  more.  It  is  the  feast  of  sum- 
mer of  the  Northern  legend,  the  highday  of  nature, 
revelling  in  all  her  glory  and  beauty,  and  of  the 
sun,  now  at  the  height  of  his  grandeur  and  might 
and  ever  present  on  the  horizon.  In  adopting 
Christianity,  the  Viking  world  kept  up  this  cele- 
bration, grafting  the  heathen  holiday  on  to  the 
Christian  calendar  and  dedicating  the  day  to 
the  glorification  of  nature,  the  counterpart  of  the 
Christian  feast  to  the  celebration  of  the  nativity 
of  Christ,  which  held  a  corresponding  position  in 
the  winter  solstice,  and  in  the  eyes  of  the  Church. 
Midsummer  and  Christmas  are  the  two  poles  of 
the  Norseman's  existence,  the  turning  points  of 
time,  the  red-letter  days  of  life.  Not  in  vain  was 
one  made  the  longest  day,  the  other  the  longest 
night  in  the  whole  year.  The  one  must  be  cele- 
brated in  the  open  air,  in  the  very  heart  of  nature, 

225 


is 


226  Swedish  Life 

decked  in  her  grandest  array;  the  other  in  the 
cheery  home,  round  the  gaily-lit-up  Yule-tree, 
amid  the  joys  of  the  indoor  circle.  Summer  and 
winter  have  each  their  special  enjoyments  for 
those  who  know  where  to  look  for  them;  and  the 
Swede  is  a  great  child  of  nature;  he  takes  his  joy 
as  it  comes,  and  makes  his  feast  of  the  passing 
moment. 

Rich  and  poor  throughout  the  land  will  to-day 
leave  their  homes  to  picnic  in  the  forest,  bask  in 
the  sunshine,  and  dance  round  the  May-pole. 
The  parks  and  woods  round  Stockholm  are 
crowded  with  those  who  cannot  get  farther  into 
the  country.  They  have  brought  their  baskets  of 
provisions  and  mean  to  spend  the  day  and  night 
— which  is  but  a  prolongation  of  the  day — under 
the  trees,  eating,  romping,  and  dozing;  playing 
games  and  dancing  on  the  green;  or  simply  lying 
in  the  grass  and  gazing  at  the  sky.  These  are  all 
the  very  joys  of  Valhalla  to  the  true  Scandinavian, 
and  they  are  obligatory  functions  on  Midsummer's 
Day,  imposed  by  the  time-honoured  laws  of  use 
and  wont.  But  all  who  can,  and  they  are  the  vast 
majority,  leave  the  town  and  spread  far  and  wide 
in  the  country.  Every  steamer  leaving  the  har- 
bour, on  the  lake-side,  or  the  sea,  is  decked  with 
flags  and  evergreens,  and  filled  to  overflowing. 
The  railway  trains  have  since  yesterday  been 
leaving  the  stations  in  rapid  succession,  every  one 
of  them  crowded.  The  shops  are  shut,  and  the 
town  wears  a  holiday  aspect.     Green  branches 


Rural  Life  227 

deck  the  doors  and  windows  of  the  cafes  and 
restaurants.  The  very  tramways  are  decorated 
w;th  verdure,  and  flowers  are  stuck  in  the  horses' 
harness.  "Cabby"  on  his  ' '  taxometer  "  has  a 
green  branch  on  his  seat,  beside  the  little  red  flag 
which  indicates  that  he  is  disengaged,  and  a  bunch 
of  flowers  as  well  on  his  horse's  head.  Since  the 
early  morning,  streams  of  holiday-makers  are 
hurrying  towards  the  quays,  where  the  shrill 
whistle  of  the  little  steamers,  as  they  fill  and  move 
off,  blends  with  the  farewell  shouts  and  the  bursts 
of  song  on  their  crowded  decks. 

Let  us  follow  the  stream  and  jump  into  the  first 
boat  we  meet  on  the  quay.  It  is  bound  for  Upsala 
and  will  cross  the  Malar  to  enter  the  Fyris,  steam- 
ing up  the  river  to  the  university  town.  Not 
many  of  its  present  passengers  will  follow  it  so 
far.  They  will  mostly  be  dropped  by  the  way,  at 
the  numerous  country  stations  along  the  lake  and 
riverside.  People  are  leaving  the  towns  to-day, 
not  travelling  to  them.  All  are  flocking  to  the 
country,  and  the  university  town  is  no  exception 
to  the  rule.  Summer  vacations  have  commenced, 
and  professors  and  students  are  not  less  keen  than 
other  mortals  to  celebrate  Midsummer  Day.  The 
hardiest  plodder  or  the  most  hardened  bookworm 
could  not  find  it  in  his  heart  to  stay  at  home  to- 
day. On  the  banks  of  the  Malar,  early  strollers 
wave  their  handkerchiefs  to  the  steamer  as  we 
glide  by.  At  every  landing,  gay  crowds  are  await- 
ing its  arrival  to  greet  their  friends  from  town. 


228  Swedish  Life 

Most  of  the  women  are  dressed  in  peasant  costume, 
for  even  girls  from  town  don  that  dress  during 
their  stay  in  the  country.  It  is  part  of  the  en- 
joyment and  fun  of  country  life.  The  town-born 
maidens  take  to  it  in  the  country  as  they  do  to 
hay-making  and  stack-climbing,  catching  cray- 
fish in  the  stream  and  plucking  wild  strawberries 
in  the  woods;  things  they  would  not  dream  of  do- 
ing in  town,  but  which  are  part  and  parcel  of  life 
in  the  country,  as  well  as  lawn-tennis,  rowing  on 
the  lake,  junketing  in  the  woods,  or  simply  lying 
on  the  grass  and  dreaming  over  a  book.  Besides, 
the  Crown  Princess  has  adopted  the  costume  and 
makes  all  her  maids-of-honour  wear  it  in  the  fore- 
noons at  Tullgarn,  the  Crown  Prince's  beautiful 
country  place.  (  The  bright-coloured  petticoats 
and  pretty  striped  aprons,  the  pointed  black  cap 
and  flowing  white  muslin  head-gear  give  to  the 
fresh-looking  girls  on  the  beach  a  gay,  jaunty  air 
and  add  colour  to  the  scene.  The  men  are  in 
flannels  and  straw  hats,  or  ' '  knickers  ' '  and  bright- 
coloured  shirts;  the  peasants  in  their  Sunday 
attire.")  On  the  faces  of  all,  men  and  women  alike, 
there  is  the  holiday  expression  befitting  the  oc- 
casion, the  gladness  born  of  freedom  on  a  bright 
summer  day,  the  exhilaration  felt  at  being  in 
closer  communion  with  nature,  at  the  glorious 
sunshine  glittering  on  the  lake,  at  the  peace  of 
the  wide  spreading  forest  which  reaches  down 
to  the  water's  edge. 
A  broad  alley  leads  through  the  wood,  from  the 


Rural  Life  229 

little  wooden  pier  or  jetty  where  the  steamer  lays 
to,  up  to  a  fine  ch&teau  of  the  Tessinian  style.  It 
is  indeed,  one  of  Tessin's  gems,  a  chdteau  with  a 
history,  like  most  of  those  of  its  epoch  in  Sweden. 
It  was  built  by  an  Oxeustierna,  after  the  Thirty 
Years'  War,  and  later  owned  by  a  Fersen.  Here 
Queen  Ulrica  Kleonora  spent  her  summers  while 
the  country  palace  of  Drottningholm  was  being 
built  for  her  by  Tessin.  Here  her  grandson, 
Charles  XII.,  played  as  a  child  and  killed  his  first 
bear  when  a  youth.  Here  Count  Carl  von  Fersen, 
Marshal  of  the  Court  of  Frederic  I.,  brought  home 
his  beautiful  bride,  L,otta  Sparre,  maid-of-honour 
to  Louisa  Ulrica,  and  known  as  the  handsomest 
woman  of  her  Court,  and  here,  later,  Field-Mar- 
shal von  Fersen,  leader  of  the  Hats,  and  President 
of  the  House  of  Nobles  in  the  agitated  days  of 
Parliamentary  supremacy,  lived  with  his  daugh- 
ters, celebrated  beauties  of  the  Court  of  Gustavus 
III.,  whom  the  poet  Kjellgren  has  immortalised 
as  the  "Three  Graces."  Hither  the  mutilated 
and  crushed  remains  of  the  unfortunate  Count 
Axel  Fersen,  son  of  the  Field-Marshal,  known  as 
the  friend  of  Marie  Antoinette,  whom  he  tried  to 
save  from  the  scaffold,  were  secretly  conveyed  for 
interment  when  he  was  murdered  in  the  streets  of 
Stockholm.  He  it  was  who  planned  the  flight  to 
Varennes  and  he  himself  drove  the  coach  in  which 
Louis  XVI.  and  his  family  left  Paris.  He  was 
Court  Marshal  to  Charles  XIII.,  and  had  to  con- 
duct the  public  funeral  of  the  heir  to  the  throne, 


230  Swedish  Life 

Carl  August,  who  had  died  very  suddenly.  The 
mob,  who  knew  Fersen  to  be  attached  to  the  de- 
throned and  exiled  King  Gustavus  IV.  and  his 
family,  suspected  him  of  having  caused  this  sud- 
den death  by  some  subtle  poison,  to  favour  the 
return  of  the  deposed  dynasty.  Dragging  him 
out  of  his  Court  carriage  at  the  head  of  the  pro- 
cession, they  kicked  and  trampled  him  to  death. 
In  the  dead  of  night,  his  friends  and  relations 
rescued  his  body  and  carried  it  out  to  his  chdteau, 
where  he  was  buried.  A  monument  in  the  grounds 
shows  the  place,  but  it  is  now  only  commemorative 
of  the  event,  as  public  opinion  soon  revised  the 
brutal  sentence  of  the  mob,  and  Fersen' s  remains 
were  taken  thence  and  buried  in  pomp  in  the 
Riddarholm  Church,  the  Westminster  Abbey  of 
Sweden,  where  her  kings  and  great  men  are 
interred. 

The  chdteau  has  since  changed  hands  many 
times,  and  it  is  now  one  of  the  best  managed 
agricultural  estates  near  Stockholm.  We  will 
examine  it  a  little  more  closely.  It  will  give  us 
an  insight  into  the  conditions  of  cultivation  of  a 
moderate-sized  gentleman's  estate  in  Sweden.  The 
fields  are  just  now  yellow  with  ripening  corn; 
the  hay  is  ready  for  the  mower.  Harvesting  will 
begin  with  hay-making  next  week  when  the  mid- 
summer festivities  are  over.  Meanwhile,  the 
tenants  and  labourers  are  gathering  for  the  feast. 
On  the  broad  lawn  by  the  chdteau,  the  great  May- 
pole is  raised,    decorated  with   evergreens   and 


Rural  Life  231 

bunches  of  wild  flowers,  surmounted  with  flags 
and  funny  little  dolls  or  lay  figures  in  peasant 
costumes,  waving  their  tiny  stiff  arms  in  ludicrous 
welcome  to  all  comers.  And  they  come,  gather- 
ing from  all  sides,  the  tenants  and  their  families, 
the  peasants  and  labourers,  from  the  ploughboy 
and  milkmaid  to  the  draymen,  the  keepers  and 
gardeners,  the  cowboys  and  dairy  folk.  After 
they  have  partaken  of  the  repast  spread  out  under 
the  trees,  the  dancing  begins  round  the  May-pole. 
First,  the  children  in  a  merry  circle  hand-in-hand, 
singing  children's  rhymes  and  country  glees;  then 
the  youths  and  maidens,  waltzing  and  polkaing 
on  the  green,  to  the  music  of  the  country  fiddlers; 
while  the  elders  sit  under  the  trees  and  look  on. 
A  good  deal  of  rustic  flirting  and  romping  and 
bantering  goes  on  in  the  intervals  of  dancing/  and 
some  hard  drinking,  too.  What  was  midsummer 
meant  for  but  that  ?  (  And  the  feasting  is  kept  up 
through  the  bright  twilight  night,  as  the  soft 
gloaming  of  one  day  merges  into  the  purple  dawn 
of  another.  1 

The  estate  is  rich  in  broad  acres  and  pasture 
land,  in  live  stock  and  forests.  It  boasts  a  model 
dairy,  a  steam  saw-mill  and  flour-mill,  fine  or- 
chards and  gardens,  and  a  small  population  of 
tenants  and  labourers.  It  is  assessed,  for  the 
payment  of  taxes,  at  470,000  crowns  (,£26,000), 
which  sum  would  not  buy  it,  however,  and  it  con- 
sists of  about  6000  acres,  of  which  2000  are  arable 
land   and  4000   pasture   land   and   forest.     The 


232  Swedish  Life 

gardens  cover  a  little  over  ten  acres,  in  which  fruit 
and  vegetables  are  raised  to  the  amount  of  about 
7000  crowns  (^388)  a  year.  About  800  acres  con- 
stitute the  home-farm,  managed  by  the  owner. 
The  rest  forms  five  outlying  farms  let  to  farmers, 
and  twenty-two  small  holdings  let  to  labourers  on 
the  labour-farm  system.  These  have  to  give  for 
their  holdings — consisting,  as  a  rule,  of  a  cottage, 
a  corn  field,  a  potato  field,  pasture  for  a  cow  and  a 
few  sheep,  and  wood  from  the  forest — three  days' 
labour  a  week  (150  in  the  year)  and  a  certain 
number  of  days'  labour  performed  by  the  women 
and  grown-up  children  at  a  fixed  wage  of  gd.  to 
lod.  a  day.  The  home-farm  is  cultivated  on  the 
seven  years'  rotation  system :  the  first  year  sown 
with  cattle  fodder  after  manuring  from  the  cow- 
house and  stables;  the  second  year  with  an  autumn 
sown  crop  of  grain;  the  third,  fourth,  and  fifth 
years  with  cattle  fodder;  the  sixth  and  seventh 
years  with  a  spring  sown  crop  of  grain  after 
manuring  with  artificial  manure  (such  as  super- 
phosphate). 

What  Swedish  agriculturists  call  autumn  and 
spring  crops  respectively  depend  on  the  season  of 
sowing.  Between  November  and  April  or  May, 
the  ground  is  covered  with  snow  and  frozen. 
Hence  the  sowing  must  take  place  either  in 
autumn,  and  the  seed  be  allowed  to  lie  under  the 
snow  throughout  the  winter,  or  in  the  spring 
when  the  snow  has  melted  away.  About  one 
third  of  the  crops  are  usually  autumn  sowings 


Rural  Life  233 

and  two  thirds  are  from  spring  sown  seed.  The 
crops  on  the  estate  we  are  considering  were  in 
190.?  as  follows: — Wheat,  755  hectolitres  from  58 
sown;  rye,  1444  hectolitres  from  60  sown;  barley, 
190  hectolitres  from  26  sown;  peas,  99  hectolitres 
from  24  sown;  oats,  191  hectolitres  from  84  sown; 
mixed  seed,  1050  hectolitres  from  252  sown;  besides 
1200  waggon-loads  of  straw.  The  live  stock  con- 
sists of  167  milch  cows,  6  shorthorn  bulls,  and  90 
calves  of  mixed  Ayrshire  breed,  besides  dray- 
horses,  carriage-horses,  oxen,  and  other  animals. 
The  dairy  produce  was  499,677  litres  of  milk,  being 
an  average  of  2939  litres  per  cow,  and  16,415 
kilograms  of  butter.  The  milk  and  butter  were 
sold  daily  in  the  market  in  Stockholm.  This  is  by 
no  means  a  very  high  average  of  dairy  produce. 
On  another  estate,  in  Orebro  County,  the  average 
milking  capacity  has  been  over  3000  litres  per 
cow,  one  animal,  the  show  milker  of  the  establish- 
ment, having  given  4163  litres  in  the  year. 

Now  let  us  take  a  larger  estate,  one  in  Central 
Sweden.  It  consists  of  40,000  acres,  7000  acres 
being  arable  land  and  the  rest  forest,  pasturage, 
and  iron  mines.  It  comprises  seventeen  farms  of 
about  150  acres  each  and  over  a  hundred  small 
holdings,  tenanted  by  farming  labourers  who  pay 
their  rent  in  kind  and  in  labour.  The  home  farm 
is  a  little  over  1500  acres,  and  its  dairy  establish- 
ment consists  of  274  milch  cows,  5  bulls,  and 
about  60  calves;  the  estate  keeping  besides  over 
100  pairs  of  oxen,  200  sheep,  and  a  fine  stable  of 


234  Swedish  Life 

horses.  The  annual  milk  produce  is  594,000 
litres,  and  the  average  of  seed  sown  on  the  prop- 
erty is  23  hectolitres  of  wheat,  136  of  rye,  638  of 
oats,  59  of  barley,  42  of  mixed  seed,  and  10  of  peas. 
The  soil  is  very  productive,  the  return  of  top- 
square  wheat  being  over  twenty-fold.  The  forest 
on  the  estate  gives  about  40,000  tree-logs  a  year, 
and  the  saw-mill,  worked  by  water-power,  turns 
out  about  1000  standard  planks,  which  are  ex- 
ported. The  estate  possesses  iron  mines,  and  the 
ore  is  smelted  in  furnaces  with  charcoal  off  the 
estate.  These  turn  out  2000  tons  of  pig-iron  a 
year.  Electric  power,  generated  by  a  waterfall, 
is  used  in  the  mines  and  also  for  the  dynamos 
which  provide  electric-light  for  the  dairy,  the 
factories,  and  the  chateau.  This  is  one  of  the 
finest  in  Sweden,  and  is  celebrated  for  its  library 
and  valuable  manuscripts,  and  its  collections  of 
historical  autographs,  rare  coins,  and  works  of  art. 
Although  the  agricultural  labour  question  is, 
perhaps,  not  so  acute  in  Sweden  as  in  other  agri- 
cultural countries,  the  progress  of  industrialism 
and  the  increasing  attractiveness  of  town  life, 
added  to  emigration,  are  making  the  rural  labourer 
scarce  and  keeping  his  wages  high.  Against  this 
scarcity,  the  landowner  has  no  remedy.  He  must 
pay  the  high  wages  and  supplement  labour  as 
much  as  he  can  by  labour-saving  machinery. 
Hence  patent  ploughs,  rakers,  sowers,  reapers, 
sheaf-binders,  and  threshers  are  nearly  every- 
where in   use.     Creamers,   churners,    and   even 


Rural  Life  235 

milking  machines  have  been  introduced  in  the 
dairy.  The  following  are  the  average  rates  of 
wages  paid  for  agricultural  labour: 

Farm  servants, lodged  and  fed,  men,  233  crowns, 
or  ^13  a  year;1  women,  no  crowns,  or  £6  3^.  ; 
labourers  (statare),  who  feed  themselves,  lodged, 
and  paid  in  money  or  kind  at  current  values: 
men,  484  crowns,  or  ^27  a  year;  women,  267 
crowns,  or  ^14  16s.;  day-labourers,  summer, 
men,  2s.  $d.  a  day;  women,  is.  ^d.  a  day;  winter, 
men,  is.  gd.  a  day;  women,  iix/id.  a  day.  The 
torpare,  or  fanning  labourer,  pays  for  his  holding 
156  days'  work  a  year,  and  the  work  of  his  wife 
and  children  at  nysd.  a  day.  These  items  repre- 
sent the  average  rate  of  wage  taken  for  the  whole 
kingdom.  The  standard  varies,  however,  con- 
siderably in  the  different  provinces,  from  2s.  o*4d. 
a  day  in  the  South,  2s.  3d.  in  the  Midlands,  and 
2s.  lod.  to  3s.  \d.  in  the  North. 

Considering  the  comparative  cheapness  of  liv- 
ing, and  the  local  value  of  milk,  butter,  rye-bread, 
potatoes,  bacon,  and  salt  fish,  which  form  the 
staple  of  his  food,  the  Swedish  agricultural  la- 
bourer's condition  compares  favourably  with  that 
of  the  labourer  in  England  or  Germany.  He  is, 
moreover,  of  a  more  contented  spirit.  Thanks  to 
the  extensive  popular  school  system,  he  has  re- 
ceived a  fair  amount  of  schooling;  he  can  read 
and  write  and  enjoy  his  one  farthing  paper,  and 

1  £1  =  18  crowns  ;  1  crown  =  100  ore  =  13  pence  and  a 
fraction. 


Y-' 


236  Swedish  Life 

now  and  then  a  book  from  the  parish  library. 
He  has  a  high  ideal  of  his  individual  rights  and 
independence,  and  is,  generally  speaking,  re- 
ligious, taking  a  lively  interest  in  the  affairs  of 
the  parish.  He  is  by  nature  gay,  sober-minded, 
and  self-satisfied.  See  a  troop  of  farm-labourers, 
men,  women,  and  children,  marching  off  to  their 
work  in  the  fields  on  a  fine  summer  morning: 
they  are  singing,  laughing,  and  bantering,  un- 
mindful of  the  long  day  of  hard  work  that  lies 
before  them.  Some  of  the  men  are  gone  ahead 
with  the  carts  and  implements.  The  farmer  him- 
self leads  the  way,  and  will  take  his  full  share  of 
the  work,  maintaining  his  authority  by  example 
and  superior  workmanship.  Most  of  his  labourers 
belong  to  his  family,  and  all  are  treated  alike,  as 
if  they  formed  part  of  it.  At  noon,  his  wife,  the 
matmoder  (food-mother),  as  she  is  called  by  all, 
will  come  out  to  the  field  with  the  mid-day  meal: 
hard-baked  rye-bread  and  bacon,  salt  fish  and 
potatoes,  or  sausage  and  cheese,  with  hot  boiled 
milk  and  home-brewed  ale.  And  she  will  bring 
the  last-born  with  her  to  enjoy  the  outing  and 
spend  the  day  among  them,  joining  in  the  banter 
and  jokes  of  the  mid-day  rest,  or  watching  them 
encouragingly  when  they  resume  work  again. 
Behind  every  reaper  stands  his  chosen  helpmate 
— a  sturdy,  active  girl,  expert  at  gathering  and 
binding  the  corn  into  sheaves  as  fast  as  he  strews 
it  under  the  sweep  of  his  scythe.  And  each  couple 
vies  with  its  neighbours  in  rapidity  of  reaping  and 


Rural  Life  237 

of  clearing  the  ground,  and  in  extending  farthest 
the  clean-mown  space  left  by  the  deftly  swung 
scthe. 

At  the  end  of  the  day,  when  the  work  is  done, 
the  field  mown  clean  and  the  sheaves  piled  up 
high  on  the  stack,  the  country  fiddler  will  make 
his  appearance  and,  climbing  to  the  top  of  the 
stack,  take  his  seat  there  and  strike  up  a  lively 
dance.  The  winning  couple  of  reapers  will  have 
the  privilege  of  leading  it,  and  the  whole  band 
will  join  hand-in-hand  and  follow  the  lead  in  a 
boisterous  round  dance.  In  the  evening,  the  aged 
grandfather,  seated  on  the  doorsteps  of  the  barn, 
with  his  nyckelharpa,  or  harp-harmonica,  like  a 
grand  old  Viking  bard  or  Druid  minstrel,  will 
draw  from  his  quaint-looking  primitive  instrument 
strains  lively  and  weird,  soft  and  melancholy,  as 
he  plays  well-known/<?/^z^r,  or  folk-songs.  The 
resting  reapers,  seated  or  lounging  on  the  ground 
around  him,  will  join  in  singing  the  popular  dit- 
ties, simple  and  touching,  with  an  ever-recurring 
minor  note,  the  Northern  tinge  of  melancholy, 
intermingling  with  the  joyful  strain. 

The  relations  between  the  landowner  and  his 
tenants  and  labourers  on  the  larger  estates  are  not 
less  familiar  and  easy,  fostered  as  they  are  by  fre- 
quent open-air  intercourse  and  community  of  in- 
terest, although  the  familiarity  is,  of  course,  not 
quite  of  the  same  sort,  and  partakes  more  of  a 
patriarchal  kindliness  of  feeling  and  respect  estab- 
lished by  long-standing  traditions.     No  relics  of 


238  Swedish  Life 

serfdom  or  manorial  dependence  linger  in  the 
mind  of  the  tenant  or  the  labourer,  nor  of  seig- 
neurial  rights  and  domination  in  that  of  the  land- 
lord and  employer.  Country  life  throws  them 
much  together.  They  meet  constantly  in  the 
fields,  in  church,  in  the  parochial  assemblies,  and 
personal  relations  become  thus  of  a  more  intimate 
and  familiar  sort  than  those  commonly  prevail- 
ing between  employer  and  employed  in  the  towns, 
between  the  factory  owner  and  his  workmen.  If 
the  town  workman  seems  to  enjoy  more  liberty, 
it  is  because  he  is  left  more  entirely  to  himself, 
and  his  employer  discards  all  interest  in  him  out- 
side his  work.  The  landowner  knows  more  about 
his  workmen  and  their  families,  who  have  gen- 
erally grown  up  on  the  estate  with  him,  and  he 
takes  a  greater  interest  in  their  general  welfare. 
The  country  labourer  knows  this,  and  appreciates 
many  of  the  advantages  he  has  over  the  city  work- 
man in  his  crowded  lodging,  wanting  alike  in 
space  and  pure  air.  Yet  he  often  longs  for  the 
town,  and  is  willing  to  give  up  his  healthier 
country  life  to  emigrate  thither.  What  causes 
this  longing  is  ennui— the  monotony  of  his  exist- 
ence and  the  want  of  amusement,  variety,  and 
excitement.  He  is  attracted  to  the  town  by  the 
lighted  streets,  the  cheap  shows,  the  movement 
and  noise,  the  gregariousness  of  life,  as  compared 
with  his  lonely  cabin  in  the  woods,  or  his  cottage 
by  the  roadside.  It  is  true,  however,  he  has 
not  been  long  in  the  town  before  he  misses  the 


Rural  Life  239 

freedom  of  the  country  and  the  healthier  life  of  the 
fields.  An  important  manufacturing  company  in 
Stockholm,  which  employs  several  thousand  work- 
men, has  found  it  in  its  interest  to  invest  in  a 
large  landed  property  on  the  Malar,  to  which  it 
sends  its  employees,  when  this  longing  comes  over 
them,  to  work  as  farm-labourers.  It  uses  its 
country  estate,  in  fact,  as  a  sanatorium  and  re- 
cruiting-ground for  its  town  workmen.  Other 
industrial  enterprises  are  established  in  the  coun- 
try, where  the  workmen  are  lodged  in  cottages 
around  the  factory,  and  are  generally  cared  for  by 
their  employers.  These  industrial  colonies  are 
mostly  popular  and  prosperous,  and  rival  the 
towns  in  their  power  of  attracting  the  agricultural 
labourer. 

Another  drain  on  the  labour  of  the  rural  dis- 
tricts is  caused  by  emigration.  This  has  con- 
siderably diminished  of  late  years,  but  the  annual 
number  of  emigrants  of  both  sexes  still  amounts 
to  about  16,000,  of  whom  4000  are  from  the  towns 
and  12,000  from  the  country,  against  about  7000 
immigrants, or  emigrants  returning  to  the  country. 
There  are  now  nearly  1^  million  Swedes  in  the 
United  States,  settled  and  prosperous,  having 
their  own  schools  and  churches  and  their  own 
Press.  This  represents  nearly  one  third  of  the 
present  population  of  the  mother  country.  Emi- 
gration has  not,  however,  in  any  considerable 
degree  diminished  the  rate  of  increase  of  the 
population  of  Sweden,  as  the  drain  is  small  in 


24-o  Swedish  Life 

proportion  to  the  fecundity  of  the  nation.  The 
excess  of  emigration  over  immigration  is  2.7$  of 
the  inhabitants,  while  the  excess  of  births  over 
deaths  is  11.2$.  But  the  drain  tells  on  the  labour- 
market  in  the  rural  districts,  as  it  is  the  strong 
and  active  labourer  who  emigrates,  in  a  spirit  of 
adventure  and  with  a  desire  to  possess  land  of  his 
own,  both  of  which  are  strongly  characteristic  of 
the  Swedish  peasant. 

In  the  higher  classes,  the  Swede,  broadly  speak- 
ing, prefers  country  to  town  life.  The  nobleman 
lives  all  the  year  round  on  his  estate.  The  cha- 
teaux are  great  centres  of  national  activity.  The 
love  of  independence  and  self-government  and  the 
partiality  for  nature  and  out-of-door  life  which 
characterise  the  nation  lead  many,  who  are  not 
otherwise  interested  in  agricultural  pursuits,  to 
live  by  preference  in  the  country.  To  quote  the 
words  of  a  popular  writer :  ' '  The  Swede  has  no 
natural  liking  for  streets  and  squares,  and  his 
literature,  saturated  with  Rousseauistic  philoso- 
phy, has  been  severe  on  towns  and  town  life." 
The  landowner,  both  peasant  and  nobleman,  has 
always  played  the  first  part  in  the  economy  and 
government  of  the  country.  Political  power  is 
still,  in  a  great  measure,  in  his  hands.  The 
heart  of  the  nation  pulsates  in  the  rural  districts, 
if  most  of  the  thinking  is  done  in  the  towns,  and 
the  brain  may  be  said  to  lie  there. 

The  increasing  importance  of  industry  and 
trade  is,  however,  gradually  bringing  about  an 


Rural  Life  241 

alteration  in  the  relative  importance  of  town  and 
country,  and  preparing  a  readjustment  of  the 
balance  of  power.  Industrial  kings  and  factory- 
workmen  crowd  to  the  towns,  and  the  power  of 
wealth  and  the  weight  of  numbers  are  beginning 
to  tell.  This  was  seen  in  the  recent  movement 
in  favour  of  the  extension  of  the  franchise,  and 
when  that  measure  is  carried  out  the  effects  will 
be  still  more  evident. 

Neither  provincialism  nor  centralisation  is  in 
the  nature  of  the  Swede.  The  movement  is  in  no 
wise  inspired  by  a  desire  to  centralise  authority  and 
give  greater  power  to  the  central  administration, 
or  diminish  the  independence  of  local  institu- 
tions. The  love  of  independence  and  self-gov- 
ernment is  too  strongly  ingrained  in  the  minds  of 
the  people  to  allow  of  any  such  tendency.  The  ab- 
sorption of  the  country  in  the  towns,  as  in  South- 
ern Europe,  where  the  traditions  of  the  Italian 
republics  exercise  their  influence,  or  the  con- 
centration of  all  intellectual  life  in  the  capital, 
as  in  France,  would  be  totally  at  variance  with 
Swedish  thought  and  existing  institutions.  The 
whole  Swedish  nation  is  proud  of  its  beautiful 
capital,  but  Stockholm  has  nothing  of  the  cen- 
tralised power  and  exclusive  influence  of  Paris, 
Berlin,  or  even  Copenhagen;  it  is  not  the  supreme 
head  round  which  everything  gravitates.  The 
Stockholm  Press  may  be  a  model  to  the  country 
by  its  high  moral  tone,  its  up-to-date  methods,  its 

intellectual  standard,  and  it  exercises,  no  doubt, 
16 


242  Swedish  Life 

a  legitimate  influence  on  the  thought  and  judg- 
ment of  the  nation;  but  it  in  no  wise  eclipses  the 
provincial  Press,  some  of  the  organs  of  which  take 
quite  as  leading  a  part  in  politics  and  exercise 
nearly  as  great  an  influence  on  public  opinion  at 
large.  The  spread  of  the  Press  in  the  rural  dis- 
tricts has  increased  immensely  of  late  years.  Of 
the  300  million  consignments  forwarded  yearly 
by  the  Swedish  post-office,  160  millions  consist  of 
newspapers  sent  from  the  towns  into  the  country, 
and  this  takes  no  account  of  the  bundles  sent  by 
train  for  local  distribution,  which  represent  a  still 
larger  amount.  Most  of  the  daily  newspapers 
publish  special  country  editions  at  half-price.  Six 
shillings  a  year  for  a  daily,  deposited  at  the  door 
of  an  outlying  farm,  is  within  the  means  of  the 
smallest  rural  purse,  and  few  peasants  are  without 
one. 

The  love  of  the  Frenchman  or  the  German  for 
a  strong  centralised  power,  on  which  he  can  rely 
to  guide  and  protect  him  at  every  turn,  and  which 
he  expects  to  take  the  initiative  in  everything, 
does  not  characterise  the  Swede,  who  has  more 
of  the  abhorrence  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  for  the 
constant  interference  of  the  Government  in  his 
concerns.  Individually  and  socially,  he  is  ac- 
customed to  manage  his  own  affairs,  and  he  is 
very  jealous  of  his  rights  of  self-government. 
Rural  and  urban  communities  alike  regard  it  as 
their  inalienable  right  to  tax  and  administer 
themselves,  and  neither  want  nor  would  brook 


Rural  Life  243 

the  intervention  of  the  central  authorities  in  their 
local  affairs. 

Intellectually  the  chateau,  the  manor,  the  par- 
sonage, and  the  well-to-do  peasant's  home  are 
quite  on  a  level  with  society  in  the  towns,  and 
share  in  the  onward  movement  of  the  age.  They 
follow  closely  the  current  politics  and  literature 
"of  their  country,  and,  as  often  as  not,  know  some- 
thing of  the  literature  and  politics  of  other  coun- 
tries as  well.  Swedes  are,  as  a  rule,  good  linguists, 
at  all  events  in  the  upper  classes.  This  is  a  simple 
matter  of  necessity  with  them,  since  out  of  Scandi- 
navia few  people  understand  their  tongue.  They 
read  German,  French,  and  English  books,  news- 
papers, and  periodicals,  as  readily  as  the  Swedish. 
The  libraries  of  most  chateaux  are  stocked  with 
this  trilingual  literature,  and  in  the  catalogue  of 
every  circulating  library  you  will  find  three  for- 
eign books  for  one  Swedish.  It  is  a  phase  of  the 
Swedish  partiality  for  things  foreign.  Foreign 
letters  and  foreign  modes  of  thought  are  followed 
and  discussed  as  much  as  Parisian  fashions  and 
London  tailoring.  The  men  take  their  fashions 
from  England,  the  women  mostly  from  France; 
but  both  follow  keenly  all  that  happens  in  society, 
the  theatres,  and  literature  in  Paris,  London,  and 
Berlin.  Every  girl,  not  only  in  the  higher  but 
even  in  the  middle  classes,  will  discuss  Paul 
Bourget,  Sudermann,  Rudyard  Kipling,  or  George 
Eliot,  as  well  as  any  Swedish  author  of  the  day. 
Thanks  to  the  Tauchnitz  editions,  the  English 


244  Swedish  Life 

novel  costs  about  one  third  its  price  in  England, 
and  the  French  is  equally  cheap.  It  is  not  always 
the  healthiest  intellectual  food  she  thus  gets,  but 
the  Swedish  girl  is  accustomed  to  read  everything 
quite  freely  and  to  judge  for  herself.  It  forms 
part  of  Scandinavian  ethics  in  the  Ibsenian  age 
we  live  in,  that  young  girls  should  have  their  eyes 
opened  to  everything  they  have  hitherto  been 
kept  in  ignorance  of,  whether  in  the  psychological 
or  the  physiological  field  of  knowledge.  They 
will  thus,  so  it  is  argued,  be  better  able  to  judge 
of  good  and  evil,  of  life  such  as  it  really  is,  of 
human  nature  such  as  civilisation  and  hothouse 
culture  has  made  it.  Nora,  in  the  Doll s  House, 
had  to  go  away  and  educate  herself,  in  order  to 
develop  her  individuality  and  become  something 
more  than  the  mere  plaything  her  husband  and 
society  had  made  of  her. 

The  modern  Swedish  girl's  education  is  no 
longer  neglected  in  this  respect.  She  is  educated 
side  by  side  with  the  young  man,  takes  precisely 
the  same  subjects  as  he  does,  even  to  physiology, 
anatomy,  and  natural  history,  and  passes  the  same 
' '  maturity ' '  examinations.  She  must  also  be 
prepared  to  earn  her  livelihood  independently  like 
him,  if  necessary;  and,  at  all  events,  she  must 
have  an  occupation,  and  make  herself  useful. 
After  school,  she  pursues  her  studies  with  the 
same  freedom  and  the  same  fearless  spirit  of  in- 
quiry. Ibsen  and  Bjornson,  and  with  them  all 
modern  Scandinavian  writers,  have  told  her  that 


Rural  Life  245 

it  is  false  modesty  which  leaves  young  people  in 
ignorance  of  the  functions  of  nature.  She  has 
been  taught  to  hate  and  despise  all  shams,  deceits, 
and  lies,  and  she  has  found  that  there  is  a  great 
deal  of  sham  in  the  prudery  of  society,  and  a  great 
deal  of  lying  in  its  virtue.  Certain  sorrowful  and 
cruel  facts  of  life  awake  her  pity  and  her  distress, 
but  she  knows  that  they  are  not  made  away  with 
because  people  attempt  to  draw  a  veil  over  them, 
so  that  she  should  not  see  them,  or  call  them  by 
polite  euphemistic  names,  and  allude  to  them 
in  a  whisper.  She  prefers  to  look  them  boldly  in 
the  face,  to  know  of  vice  not  only  in  the  gaudy 
and  flattering  aspect  it  is  made  to  wear  in  society, 
but  as  expressed  by  the  ghastly  and  pitiable 
realities  of  life.  Often  she  knows  more  about  it 
all  than  one  would  think,  and  this  knowledge  has 
destroyed  in  her  all  sorts  of  indulgence  and  len- 
iency for  elegant  and  poetised  society  euphemisms. 
She  prizes  knowledge  for  its  own  sake,  and  also 
because  she  feels  that  it  alone  can  place  her  on  an 
equality  with  man,  and  give  her  the  assurance 
and  smartness  which  men  appreciate,  and  enable 
her  to  take  an  interest  in  the  subjects  which  in- 
terest men.  She  reads  everything  without  false 
prudery,  but  the  emotional  side  of  her  nature — 
and  in  spite  of  all,  her  nature  is  far  more  emotional 
than  man's — makes  her  prefer  the  novel  or  ro- 
mance which  feeds  that  instinct.  She  is  keen  for 
all  sports  because  she  loves  nature  and  out-of- 
door- life,  and  because  men  are  keen  on  sport  and 


246  Swedish  Life 

appreciate  her  companionship.  And  that  compan- 
ionship is  of  the  freest  and  easiest  kind,  begun  at 
school  and  continued  on  the  same  footing  of 
equality  and  comradeship. 

All  these  tendencies  and  influences  have  com- 
bined to  make  of  the  modern  Swedish  girl  a 
singular  compound  of  high  culture  and  sporting 
proclivities,  of  frank  openmindedness  and  single- 
ness of  heart,  of  great  independence  of  character 
and  strong  individuality,  coupled  with  tender 
contemplativeness  and  sentimental  enthusiasm. 
Averse  to  all  shams  and  lies,  she  is  given  to  an 
almost  boyish  freedom  of  speech  and  blunt 
straightforwardness,  which  cover,  however,  a 
great  tenderness  of  heart  and  a  truly  feminine 
softness  of  nature.  Her  life  of  freedom  and  her 
strong  individuality  have  not  impaired  her  ca- 
pacity for  tenderness  and  devoted  self-sacrifice; 
for  she  is  an  excellent  wife  and  an  exemplary 
mother. 

And  yet  so  long  as  she  is  free,  she  must  be  at 
work,  occupied,  useful.  We  thus  find  her  taking 
her  share  in  all  parish  and  communal  matters,  an 
active  member  of  school  boards  and  poor-relief 
committees,  lecturing  at  school  and  parish  gather- 
ings, debating  at  the  parochial  assemblies.  In 
literature,  she  holds  a  prominent  place,  and  so, 
too,  in  art  and  journalism.  In  the  post  and  tele- 
graph offices,  she  is  employed  as  much  as  men,  and 
the  telephone  is  almost  entirely  in  her  hands.  In 
the  banks  and  in  trade,  she  is  clerk,  book-keeper, 


Rural  Life  247 

and  cashier;  she  it  is  who  receives  and  pays 
out  all  the  money  that  goes  over  the  counter. 
As  a  teacher,  she  is  very  efficient,  and  in  some 
cases  shows  high  scientific  capabilities.  The  as- 
sistant professorship  in  higher  mathematics  at  the 
Stockholm  High  School  was  until  lately  (she  died 
quite  young)  occupied  by  a  woman,  Sonia  Kowa- 
lewsky,  considered  one  of  the  best  mathematicians 
of  the  age.  As  physician  and  as  dentist,  woman 
holds  her  own,  too,  though  there  she  is  still  greatly 
in  the  minority;  but  in  the  hospitals,  as  sick  nurse, 
she  is  indispensable;  as  a  masseuse  she  is  un- 
rivalled, and  in  all  philanthropic  undertakings, 
all  schemes  of  social  reform,  she  is  among  the 
foremost.  Woman  in  Sweden  is  more  and  more 
asserting  for  herself  an  independent  position. 
She  has  by  no  means  repudiated  marriage  and  its 
responsibilities,  but  she  has,  nevertheless,  created 
a  possible  sphere  of  existence  which  emancipates 
her  from  the  marriage  tie  if  so  minded. 


CHAPTER  XI 


BENEFICENT  FOUNDATIONS 


THIS  is  the  age  of  munificent  benefactions  in 
aid  of  science  and  learning.  The  Rhodes 
scholarships,  Mr.  Andrew  Carnegie's  free  libraries 
and  educational  endowments,  the  Due  d' Aumale's 
gift  to  the  French  Academy  of  his  fine  ckdteazi  at 
Chantilly,  with  its  magnificent  historical  and  art 
collections,  many  institutions  founded  in  the 
United  States  and  elsewhere  by  multi-millionaires 
for  the  advancement  of  knowledge,  are  a  sign  of 
the  times.  Sweden  can  boast  many  such  munifi- 
cent citizens.  Apart  from  charitable  foundations 
and  endowments  for  the  maintenance  of  hospi- 
tals and  asylums,  of  universities,  scholarships,  and 
fellowships,  which  the  generosity  of  former  gen- 
erations has  secured,  the  present  generation  has 
seen  noble  donations  made  by  private  men  for 
more  special  objects,  having  the  general  advance- 
ment of  knowledge  in  view,  such  as  the  encour- 
agement of  scientific  research  and  the  support  of 
voyages  of  geographical  exploration.  Nordens- 
kiold's  Arctic  voyages,  his  and  Palander's  naviga- 
tion through  the  polar  north-east  passage  in  the 

248 


Beneficent  Foundations       249 

Vega,  Nathort's  exploration  of  King  Carl's  Land, 
the  Swedish  expedition  to  the  Antarctic  regions 
under  Otto  Nordenskiold,  which  has  lately  re- 
turned after  two  years'  adventurous  exploration 
in  Graham  Land  and  the  discovery  of  King  Oscar 
Land,  Sven  Hedin's  travels  in  Central  Asia,  which 
have  had  such  important  results  and  made  his 
works  so  widely  read, — all  these  were  undertaken 
as  the  result  of  such  aid.  The  latest  case  in  point, 
Alfred  Nobel's  foundation  of  annual  prizes  for  the 
reward  of  scientific  discovery,  of  literary  merit, 
and  humanitarian  endeavour,  deserves  special 
notice.  The  annual  distribution  of  these  prizes, 
each  of  which  represents  a  small  fortune  (^8300), 
has  of  late  years  fixed  the  attention  of  the  learned 
world  on  the  Swedish  literary  and  scientific  bodies 
and  the  Norwegian  Parliamentary  Committee  who 
were  entrusted  by  him  with  the  difficult  and  in- 
vidious task  of  awarding  them. 

Alfred  Nobel,  the  dynamite  king,  as  he  was 
styled,  belonged  to  a  family  of  inventors  and  in- 
dustrial magnates.  His  father,  Emmanuel  Nobel, 
was  the  inventor  of  nitro-glycerine,  or  "explosive 
oil,"  and  of  fixed  submarine  torpedoes  or  mines. 
His  two  brothers,  Robert  and  Louis  Nobel, 
founded  the  naphtha  and  petroleum  works  of 
Bacou,  one  of  the  largest  industrial  enterprises 
of  Russia.  He  himself  invented  dynamite  and 
dynamite  gum,  and  a  smokeless  powder,  ballistite, 
which  he  patented  in  1867,  1876,  and  1889.  "  La 
Suede  est  le  pays  classique  des  explosifs,"  says 


250  Swedish  Life 

Chalons  in  his  work  on  modern  explosives. '  It  is 
mainly  due  to  the  works  of  the  Nobel  family  that 
Sweden  has  attained  this  reputation.  Chemical 
research  has  always  been  a  speciality  among 
Swedish  men  of  science,  and  a  large  number  of 
the  known  chemical  elements  were  discovered  and 
made  known  by  Swedish  scientists.  The  names 
of  Bergman,  von  Scheele,  Gahn,  Berzelius,  Mo- 
sander,  Nilson,  Cleve,  Pettersson,  Morner,  Loven, 
and  Arrhenius  stand  high  in  the  annals  of  chem- 
istry. But  the  special  application  of  chemical  re- 
search to  the  discovery  of  explosives  has,  during 
two  successive  generations,  been  the  one  absorb- 
ing thought  of  this  family  of  inventors,  and  most 
of  the  advance  made  in  the  science  of  explosives 
is  due  to  their  fearless  and  untiring  investigations 
in  this  dangerous  field  of  chemical  analysis.  The 
most  trying  sacrifices  were  unable  to  deter  them 
from  the  perilous  pursuit.  In  1864,  Emmanuel 
Nobel's  works  at  Heleneborg,  near  Stockholm, 
blew  up  during  one  of  his  experiments,  and  his 
younger  son,  Oscar  Nobel,  and  his  chief  engineer, 
Hertzman,  were  killed  in  the  explosion.  The 
manipulation  of  the  Nobel  explosive  oil,  on  the 
perfecting  of  which  he  was  engaged,  was  deemed 
too  dangerous  by  the  authorities,  and  its  manu- 
facture was  prohibited.  Nothing  daunted,  how- 
ever, Nobel  bought  a  large  lighter,  had  it  anchored 
in  the  Malar  away  from  all  habitations  and  traffic, 

1  Les  explosifs  modernes,  by  Chalons,  and  Alfred  No- 
bel, by  W.  Cronquist. 


Beneficent  Foundations       251 

rigged  a  plank  hut  on  it,  and  there  he  and  his  son 
Alfred  continued  their  experiments.  It  was  thus 
th.it  Alfred  Nobel  made  the  discovery  that  by- 
mixing  his  liquid  explosive  with  infusorial  earth 
or  shell-chalk  {Kieselgiihr),  which  absorbed  three 
times  its  weight  of  the  highly  ignitible  oil,  he  ob- 
tained a  solid  substance  of  slower  combustion  but 
greater  explosive  force,  which  was  much  less 
dangerous  to  handle.  This  was  the  invention  of 
dynamite,  which  he  perfected  in  1876  by  the  in- 
vention of  the  still  more  active  explosive  he  called 
dynamite  gum.  He  went  to  Paris  with  his 
patented  invention  and  there  formed  a  company 
with  a  capital  of  ten  million  francs  for  the  manu- 
facture of  dynamite.  It  proved  to  be  an  article 
of  the  greatest  industrial  importance,  and  one 
destined  to  revolutionise  mining  and  engineering. 
Ere  long  he  had  established  extensive  works  in 
France,  Scotland,  Germany,  Belgium,  Austria, 
and  the  United  States.  He  produced  over  sixty 
million  kilograms  a  year,  representing  a  value  of 
about  five  million  sterling.  He  became,  in  fact, 
the  world's  purveyor  of  an  article  which  was  now 
exclusively  used  in  great  mining  and  engineering 
works.  Thanks  to  it,  engineers  were  able  to 
pierce  tunnels  through  the  Alps,  miners  to  sink 
their  shafts  into  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  and  har- 
bour constructors  to  remove  sunken  rocks  out  of 
the  way  of  shipping.  But  thanks  to  it,  too,  the 
Communards  were  enabled  to  blow  up  the  finest 
monuments  of  Paris  in  a  few  hours.     It  was  at 


252  Swedish  Life 

once  a  powerful  instrument  of  industrial  develop- 
ment, and  of  progress  in  the  conquests  of  man 
over  inert  matter,  and  a  terrible  engine  of  devasta- 
tion in  warfare  and  of  massacre  and  vandalism 
where  homicidal  and  destructive  passions  were 
aroused  in  mankind. 

It  was  perhaps  this  thought  that  in  benefiting 
industry  he  had  also  made  war  more  destructive 
which  led  Alfred  Nobel,  who  was  a  most  pacific 
and  humane  man,  endowed  with  the  kindliness 
and  sympathy  of  a  great  mind,  to  make  the  pro- 
visions he  did  in  his  will.  He  devoted  all  his  for- 
tune to  the  encouragement  of  scientific  discovery 
and  the  reward  of  endeavours  to  diminish  stand- 
ing armies  and  the  chances  of  war,  to  promote 
fraternity  amongst  nations  and  the  settlement  of 
international  disputes  by  peace  congresses.  His 
will,  in  its  very  conciseness  and  unsophisticated 
simplicity,  is  characteristic  of  the  man.  It  is 
dated  November  27,  1895,  and  he  died  a  year 
afterwards,  on  December  10,  1896,  leaving  a  for- 
tune of  about  two  millions  sterling.  After  insti- 
tuting several  small  legacies,  the  will  proceeds  : 

' '  With  the  residue  of  my  convertible  estate  I 
hereby  direct  my  executors  to  proceed  as  follows  : 
They  shall  convert  my  said  residue  of  property 
into  money,  which  they  shall  then  invest  in  safe 
securities;  the  capital  thus  secured  shall  consti- 
tute a  fund,  the  interest  accruing  from  which  shall 
be  annually  awarded  in  prizes  to  those  persons 
who  shall  have  contributed  most  materially  to 


Beneficent  Foundations       253 

benefit  mankind  during  the  year  immediately  pre- 
ceding. The  said  interest  shall  be  divided  into 
five  equal  amounts,  to  be  apportioned  as  follows: 
one  share  to  the  person  who  shall  have  made  the 
most  important  discovery  or  invention  in  the  do- 
main of  physics;  one  share  to  the  person  who 
shall  have  made  the  most  important  chemical  dis- 
covery or  improvement;  one  share  to  the  person 
who  shall  have  made  the  most  important  discovery 
in  the  domain  of  physiology  or  medicine;  one 
share  to  the  person  who  shall  have  produced  in 
the  field  of  literature  the  most  distinguished  work 
of  an  idealistic  tendency;  and,  finally,  one  share 
to  the  person  who  shall  have  most  or  best  pro- 
moted the  fraternity  of  nations  and  the  abolition 
or  diminution  of  standing  armies  and  the  forma- 
tion or  increase  of  peace  congresses.  The  prizes 
for  physics  and  chemistry  shall  be  awarded  by  the 
Swedish  Academy  of  Science  (Svenka  Vetenskap- 
sakademien)  in  Stockholm,  the  one  for  physiology 
or  medicine  by  the  Caroline  Medical  Institute 
(Karolinska  Institutet)  in  Stockholm;  the  prize 
for  literature  by  the  Swedish  Academy  (Svenska 
Akademien)  in  Stockholm;  and  that  for  peace  by 
a  committee  of  five  persons  to  be  elected  by  the 
Norwegian  Storting.  I  declare  it  to  be  my  ex- 
press desire  that,  in  the  awarding  of  these  prizes, 
no  consideration  whatever  be  paid  to  the  nation- 
ality of  the  candidates,  that  is  to  say,  that  the 
most  deserving  be  awarded  the  prize,  whether  of 
Scandinavian  origin  or  not." 


254  Swedish  Life 

The  competition  for  the  prizes  was  laid  open 
to  the  whole  world.  The  only  criterion  in  making 
the  award  was  to  be  the  intrinsic  value  of  the 
work  or  discovery  in  advancing  knowledge  and 
benefiting  mankind,  in  promoting  peace  among 
nations  and  idealism  in  literature.  The  task  of 
awarding  these  prizes  was  no  easy  one  for  the 
bodies  to  whom  it  was  confided.  An  intimate 
knowledge  of  scientific  movements  all  the  world 
over,  of  the  relative  merits  of  all  scientific  dis- 
coveries, of  the  most  recent  literary  production  of 
every  country  under  the  sun,  would  be  necessary 
to  carry  out  the  testator's  wishes  to  the  letter. 
The  proviso  that  the  work  or  the  discovery  to  be 
rewarded  must  have  been  written  or  made  "during 
the  preceding  year,"  greatly  augmented  the  diffi- 
culty, and  the  task  seemed  indeed  one  it  would  be 
impossible  conscientiously  to  accomplish.  Hence 
the  testator's  prescriptions  had  to  be  supplemented 
and  elucidated.  This  was  done  by  an  Order  in 
Council  issued  by  the  King  on  June  29,  1900. 
One  clause  provided  that  "The  term  literature 
used  in  the  will  shall  be  understood  to  embrace 
not  only  works  falling  under  the  category  of  polite 
literature,  but  also  other  writings  which  may 
claim  to  possess  literary  value  by  reason  of  their 
form  or  their  mode  of  exposition."  It  was  also 
decreed  that  ' '  The  proviso  in  the  will  to  the  effect 
that  for  the  prize  competition  only  such  works  or 
inventions  shall  be  eligible  as  have  appeared 
'  during  the  preceding  year '  is  to  be  so  under- 


Beneficent  Foundations       255 

stood,  that  a  work  or  an  invention  for  which  a 
leward  under  the  terms  of  the  will  is  contem- 
plated shall  set  forth  the  most  modern  results  of 
work  being  done  in  such  of  the  departments  de- 
fined in  the  will  to  which  it  belongs;  works  or 
inventions  of  older  standing  to  be  taken  into  con- 
sideration only  in  case  their  importance  has  not 
previously  been  demonstrated.  Every  written 
work  to  qualify  for  a  prize  shall  have  appeared  in 
print.  The  amount  allotted  to  one  prize  may  be 
divided  between  two  works  submitted,  should 
each  of  such  works  be  deemed  to  merit  a  prize. 
In  cases  where  two  or  more  persons  shall  have 
executed  a  work  in  conjunction  and  that  work  be 
awarded  a  prize,  such  prize  shall  be  presented  to 
them  jointly.  The  work  of  any  person  since  de- 
ceased cannot  be  submitted  for  award;  should, 
however,  the  death  of  the  individual  have  occurred 
subsequent  to  a  recommendation  having  been 
made  in  due  course  for  his  work  to  receive  a  prize, 
such  prize  may  be  awarded.  It  shall  fall  to  the 
lot  of  each  corporation  entitled  to  adjudicate 
prizes  to  determine  whether  the  prize  or  prizes  they 
have  to  award  might  likewise  be  granted  to  some 
institution  or  society.  No  work  shall  have  a  prize 
awarded  to  it  unless  it  has  been  proved  by  the 
examination  of  experts  to  possess  the  pre-eminent 
excellence  that  is  manifestly  signified  by  the  terms 
of  the  will.  If  it  be  deemed  that  not  one  of  the 
works  under  examination  attains  to  the  standard 
of  excellence  above  referred  to,  the  sum  allotted 


256  Swedish  Life 

for  the  prize  shall  be  withheld  till  the  ensuing 
year. ' ' 

A  general  committee  was  appointed  for  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  fund,  and  each  of  the  awarding 
bodies  was  authorised  to  appoint  commissions  of 
experts  to  examine  and  report  on  the  claims  of 
all  candidates  proposed  for  a  prize.  To  be  ad- 
mitted as  a  candidate  for  a  prize,  every  person 
having  a  claim  to  one  must  be  proposed  by  a  com- 
petent authority  in  his  own  country.  A  special 
regulation  of  each  of  the  awarding  bodies  fixes 
the  conditions  which  entitle  foreign  scientific  and 
literary  societies,  corporations,  learned  institu- 
tions, or  persons  to  make  such  propositions. 
Personal  applications  are  not  taken  into  considera- 
tion. Applications  by  such  competent  authorities, 
as  defined  by  the  above-mentioned  regulations, 
must  be  based  on  clearly  specified  statements  of 
claim,  descriptive  of  the  discovery  or  work  which, 
in  the  eyes  of  the  proposers,  entitles  its  author  to 
a  prize  within  the  terms  of  the  will,  and  must  be 
accompanied  by  the  works  or  publications  on 
which  the  claim  is  based. 

The  Swedish  Academy,  which  has  to  award 
the  literary  prize,  has  founded  a  special  library — 
the  Nobel  Library — where  special  referees  collect 
and  study  all  current  works  of  literature,  belles- 
lettres,  and  literary  criticism  in  the  following  lan- 
guages:— French  and  Provencal;  Italian,  Spanish 
(including  South  American  literature  in  Spanish), 
and  Catalonian;  Portuguese  (including  Brazilian 


Beneficent  Foundations       257 

literature  in  Portuguese),  Roumanian,  German, 
Dutch,  and  Flemish;  English  (including  Ameri- 
can, Australian,  and  other  colonial  literature  in 
English),  modern  Greek,  Danish,  Norwegian, 
and  Swedish;  Russian,  Polish,  Czech,  and  Croa- 
tian; Serbian,  Bulgarian,  Slovene,  and  Slovac; 
Hungarian  and  Finnish.  According  to  the  reso- 
lution adopted  by  the  Academy,  the  Nobel  Library 
will  eventually  contain  all  the  noteworthy  works 
of  modern  literature  in  each  of  the  above  lan- 
guages. It  will  comprise  all  classic  and  standard 
works  of  poetry,  romance,  and  belles-lettres;  all 
works  of  mark  appearing,  or  which  have  appeared 
within  the  last  few  years;  all  encyclopaedic,  bio- 
graphical, bibliographical,  and  lexicographical 
works;  all  literary  essays,  literary  critiques,  and 
literary  histories;  literary  reviews  and  periodicals; 
and  books  of  reference  in  history,  art,  philosophy, 
and  philology  published  in  each  language.  If  this 
programme  is  fully  carried  out,  the  Nobel  Library 
will  become  in  time  an  extraordinary  institution, 
unique  of  its  kind.  Already  it  contains,  apart 
from  182  periodical?  subscribed  to,  about  26,000 
volumes,  consisting  of  the  classics  and  latest  pro- 
ductions in  poetry,  romance,  literary  criticism,  and 
books  of  reference  in  twenty-four  languages. 

Of  the  total  annual  amount  accruing  from  the 
Nobel  Fund  (30  million  crowns),  a  certain  portion 
is  set  aside  for  defraying  the  expenses  of  this  in- 
stitution, one  tenth  of  the  proceeds  is  added  to 
the  capital  in  view  of  possible  diminution  of  in- 
17 


258  Swedish  Life 

terest  on  it,  and  the  rest  is  awarded  in  five  yearly 
prizes  of  150,000  crowns  (^8300)  each.  The 
prizes  are  distributed  every  year  on  December 
10th,  the  day  of  the  testator's  death.  The  prize- 
winners are  invited  to  attend  in  person  at  the 
ceremony  of  distribution  in  Stockholm  or  Christ- 
iania  and  receive  their  prizes,  and  they  have  sub- 
sequently to  give  a  lecture  on  the  subject  which 
has  won  them  the  prize.  This  ceremony  of  the 
distribution  of  the  Nobel  prizes,  and  the  lectures 
that  follow  on  the  most  important  and  epoch- 
making  discoveries  of  the  day,  have  become  quite 
a  feature  of  Stockholm  life.  Not  only  the  King 
and  his  Court,  the  authorities  and  society,  but  the 
learned  of  the  land  attend  them.  The  savants 
from  their  studies  and  laboratories  and  from  the 
universities  and  academies,  whom  one  may  rarely 
see  otherwise,  appear  in  force.  The  Rontgen 
rays  and  Osmotic  pressure,  the  fever  mosquito 
and  the  diphtheria  serum,  or  radium  and  the 
light  cure  occupy,  more  or  less,  everybody's 
thoughts,  as  the  president  of  each  Academy  in 
turn  discourses  learnedly  on  the  great  value  to 
mankind  of  the  discovery  for  which  the  prize  in 
his  section  is  awarded.  Then  the  King  hands 
the  diploma,  the  gold  medal,  and,  last,  but  by  no 
means  least,  the  neat  little  cheque  which  consti- 
tutes the  prize,  to  the  happy  winner,  who  comes 
forward,  the  cynosure  of  all  eyes,  to  receive  it. 
Some  look  pleased  and  smiling,  some  awkward 
and  ill  at  ease.      Many  perhaps  secretly  wish 


Beneficent  Foundations       259 

themselves  back  at  their  pots  and  crucibles,  their 
inoculations  and  physical  experiments.  The 
change  is,  no  doubt,  rather  abrupt  from  the 
silence  of  the  study  or  laboratory  to  this  glaring 
publicity;  but  there  is  consolation  in  the  thought 
that  the  award  proclaims  once  more  to  the  world 
the  utility  of  their  discovery,  consecrates  them 
benefactors  of  mankind  and  leaders  in  their 
science,  and  also  in  the  feeling  that  they  are  now 
placed  beyond  possibility  of  material  want,  and 
are  henceforth  able  to  pursue  their  studies  free 
from  all  anxiety  as  to  the  necessities  of  life. 

It  was  Nobel's  object  to  reward  and  help  the 
pure  man  of  science,  too  much  absorbed  in  his 
researches  to  think  of  drawing  any  industrial  or 
pecuniary  advantages  from  his  scientific  dis- 
coveries. ' '  I  would  not  leave  anything  to  a  man 
of  action  or  industrial  enterprise,"  he  said  to  a 
friend  with  whom  he  was  discussing  the  project 
of  his  will;  "  the  sudden  acquisition  of  a  fortune 
would  probably  only  damp  the  energy  and  weaken 
the  spirit  of  enterprise  of  such  a  man.  I  want  to 
aid  the  dreamer,  the  scientific  enthusiast,  who 
forgets  everything  in  the  pursuit  of  his  idea." 

There  is  no  doubt  that  the  invention  of  a  patent 
pin  or  a  popular  toy,  the  discovery  of  a  chemical 
dye  or  a  special  cure  can  be  made  to  produce  more 
money  than  Darwin  or  Newton  ever  gained  by  his 
discoveries,  which  revolutionised  science.  It  is 
the  Darwins  and  the  Newtons,  the  Harveys,  the 
Pasteurs,  and  the  Listers  that  Nobel  wished  to 


260  Swedish  Life 

reach;  his  object  was  to  save  them  from  trou- 
bling their  minds  about  anything  beyond  their 
purely  scientific  researches  and  to  reward  them 
for  the  discoveries,  the  fruits  of  which  they 
had  given  away  gratuitously  for  the  benefit  of 
mankind. 

The  Nobel  prizes  have  now  been  awarded  for 
three  years  running,  and  the  prize-winners  have 
been  as  follows: 

The  prize  in  physics:  1901,  Professor  Wilhelm 
Conrad  Rontgen,  of  the  University  of  Munich, 
for  his  discovery  of  the  X  or  Rontgen  rays;  1902, 
the  prize  was  divided  between  Professor  Lorentz, 
of  the  University  of  L,eyden,  and  Professor  Zee- 
man,  of  the  University  of  Amsterdam,  for  their 
theoretical  and  experimental  discoveries  respec- 
tively in  regard  to  electrones  and  the  electro- 
magnetic theory  of  light;  1903,  divided  between 
Professor  H.  A.  Becqueril,  of  the  Ecole  Polytech- 
nique  of  Paris,  for  his  discovery  of  spontaneous 
radioactivity,  and  M.  and  Mme.  Curie,  of  Paris, 
for  their  joint  work  on  the  development  of  this 
discovery. 

The  prize  in  chemistry:  1901,  Professor  Jacob 
Henrik  van't  Hoff,  of  the  University  of  Berlin, 
for  his  discovery  of  the  laws  of  Osmotic  pressure 
and  chemical  dynamics;  1902,  Professor  Emil 
Fischer,  of  the  same  University,  for  his  researches 
in  regard  to  sugar,  cafeine  cocaine,  theine,  purine 
and  purine  derivatives,  and  their  medicinal  pro- 
perties; 1903,  Professor  S.  A.  Arrhenius,  of  the 


Beneficent  Foundations       261 

Stockholm  High  School,  for  his  theory  of  electro- 
lytic dissociation. 

The  medical  prize:  1901,  Professor  Eniil  von 
Behring,  for  his  serum  therapeutics  of  diphtheria; 
1902,  Major  Ronald  Ross,  for  his  discoveries  in 
regard  to  malarial  fevers;  1903,  Professor  N.  R. 
Finseu,  of  the  Light  Institute  of  Copenhagen,  for 
his  treatment  of  diseases,  and  epecially  lupus 
vulgaiis,  by  concentrated  rays  of  light. 

The  literary  prize:  1901,  M.  Sully  Prudhomme, 
of  the  French  Academy,  for  his  lyrical  poems; 

1902,  Professor  Mommsen,  for  his  Roman  History-, 

1903,  Bjornstjerne  Bjornson,  the  Norwegian  poet 
and  writer,  for  his  literary  works. 

The  peace  prize:  1901,  divided  between  M. 
Henri  Dunant,  promoter  of  the  Geneva  Conven- 
tion and  the  Red  Cross  Society,  and  M.  Frederic 
Passy,  founder  of  the  Societe  d' Arbitrage  entre 
les  Nations;  1902,  divided  between  M.  Elie  Du- 
commun,  Honorary  Secretary  of  the  Peace  Bureau 
of  Berne,  and  Dr.  Gobat,  director  of  the  inter- 
Parliamentary  Peace  Congress;  1903,  William 
Randal  Cremer,  M.P.,  Secretary  of  the  Inter- 
national Arbitration  League. 


CHAPTER  XII 


SPORTS  AND  GAMES 


IDROTT,  which  is  the  Swedish  name  for  sport 
in  all  its  branches,  is  an  old  Scandinavian  in- 
stution.  It  comprises  all  games  and  exercises 
having  in  view  the  development  of  manliness, 
courage,  physical  endurance,  and  dexterity  in 
youth.  The  records  in  the  Eddas  of  old  Norse 
life  show  us  the  warriors  of  the  Viking  age 
eagerly  engaged  in  contests  and  trials  of  strength 
and  ability  with  the  spear,  the  javelin,  the  bow 
and  arrow,  and  the  sword,  in  jumping  and 
wrestling,  in  racing  on  foot  and  on  horseback, 
on  the  snow-shoes,  or  skt'dor,1  and  the  skate,  in 
chariot  driving,  rowing,  and  sailing.  Their  de- 
scendants have  inherited  their  love  for  all  these 
modes  of  sport,  to  which  they  have  added  more 
modern  ones,  such  as  football,  lawn-tennis, 
hockey,  and  curling,  hunting,  shooting,  and 
bicyliug,  not  to  mention  the  complicated  gym- 
nastic exercises  on  scientific  principles,  invented 
by  lying,  and  improved  on  by  others,  which  the 
youth  of  both  sexes  have  to  go  through  at  school. 

1  Skida,  plural  skidor,  pronounced  sheedor. 
262 


Sports  and  Games  26^ 


Racing  and  hunting  are  both  popular  sports; 
but  in  a  very  mild  form,  when  compared  with 
what  is  thereby  understood  in  England.  Betting 
on  racing  is  forbidden  by  law,  and  the  race-course 
being  thus  deprived  of  the  betting-ring,  and  de- 
pending solely  on  the  stakes,  and  kept  up  with  a 
view  to  the  improvement  of  horse-flesh,  it  lacks 
the  element  of  excitement  which  exists  elsewhere. 
There  is,  on  the  other  hand,  no  fox-hunting,  for 
the  fox  is  not  only  unprotected  by  the  unwritten 
laws  which  in  England  largely  reserve  it  for  this 
purpose,  but  is  unmercifully  shot  down  in  the  in- 
terests of  the  farmer.  It  is  considered  legitimate 
prey  for  every  man  holding  a  gun,  and  a  price  is 
placed  on  its  head  by  the  authorities,  who  pay  a 
premium  for  every  fox  killed.  Reynard  is,  in 
fact,  placed  on  a  par  with  bears,  wolves,  badgers, 
otters,  seals,  eagles,  hawks,  and  crows,  and 
regarded  as  noxious  vermin  which  must  be 
destroyed.  The  annual  premiums  paid  by 
Government  for  this  purpose  amount  to  about 
4500  crowns,  and  the  communal  authorities  spend 
56,000  crowns  additional.  The  animals  for  whose 
death  these  premiums  were  paid  in  1899  were  the 
following:  25  bears,  99  wolves,  34  lynxes,  114 
gluttons,  or  wolverines,  18,726  foxes,  206  martens, 
34  otters,  348  seals,  296  eagles,  13,078  hawks,  and 
125,810  crows.  In  the  five  yearly  periods  of  1891- 
95,  the  number  of  foxes  for  which  premiums  were 
paid  was  92,683,  or  an  average  of  18,536,  yet  this 
number  is  far  from  representing  the  total  number 


264  Swedish  Life 

of  animals  killed,  as  not  all  who  shoot  a  fox  care 
to  fulfil  the  formalities  necessary  for  claiming  the 
premium.  The  fox-skin  is  much  prized  as  a  fur, 
and  there  is  a  regular  trade  in  fox  furs  with 
Russia.  The  destructive  process  does  not  seem, 
however,  to  diminish  the  number  of  foxes,  for  the 
premiums  paid  during  the  last  ten  years  were 
larger  instead  of  smaller  as  in  the  case  of  wolves 
and  bears,  which  become  rarer  every  year.  The 
bears  killed  in  the  years  1891-95  were  124;  in 
1876-80,  299;  in  1856-60,  635;  and  the  wolves 
killed  in  the  years  1891-95  were  359;  in  1856-60, 
868. 

Fox-hunting  would,  moreover,  meet  with  diffi- 
culties in  most  part  of  the  country,  on  account  of 
the  woodlands  and  lakes,  and  the  nature  of  the 
fences  around  pasture  land.  Hunting  is  there- 
fore reduced  to  drag  hunting  and  a  modified 
steeple-chase,  which  means  galloping  across 
country  from  one  given  point  to  another,  in  the 
wake  of  a  leader  or  "  fox,"  and  clearing  such  ob- 
stacles— ditches,  gates,  and  fences — as  have  been 
cleared  by  the  leader. 

A  more  elaborate  form  of  this  sport  is  afforded 
by  the  so-called  "  distance  riding  matches,"  in 
which  the  riders  have  to  cover  the  distance  from 
one  town  to  another,  varying  from  a  hundred  to 
several  hundred  miles,  following  whatever  pace 
and  track  they  like.  Each  rider  starts  alone,  at 
a  different  time,  and  has  to  reach  the  goal  with 
his  horse  in  such  a  condition  as  to  pass  muster 


Sports  and  Games  265 

before  a  special  commission  of  inspection.  He 
may  choose  bis  own  course,  along  the  circuitous 
road  or  across  country,  by  a  short  cut  through 
the  forest  and  over  pastures  and  fields.  The 
course  to  be  run  is  generally  kept  secret  till  the 
moment  of  starting,  so  that  no  previous  recon- 
noitring of  the  ground  can  take  place  among  the 
riders.  An  eye  for  the  country,  the  capacity  of 
judging  at  a  glance  how  the  land  lies,  and  select- 
ing the  shortest  and  easiest  way  according  to  the 
nature  of  the  country,  and  good  horsemanship  in 
regulating  the  pace,  so  as  to  get  as  much  as  pos- 
sible out  of  the  horse  without  driving  him  too 
hard,  since  the  prize  is  forfeited  if  he  shows  on 
arrival  that  he  has  been  forced  beyond  his  powers, 
are  the  talents  in  the  rider  which  are  put  to  the 
test  in  these  performances.  They  are  often  under- 
taken in  winter,  when  the  whole  country  is  buried 
in  snow  and  the  lakes  are  frozen,  which  facilitates 
cross-country  riding  but  renders  the  pace  more 
trying  and  requires  all  the  more  quickness  and 
tact  on  the  part  of  the  rider  in  avoiding  crevices 
and  breaks  in  the  ice  and  snowdrifts  in  the  val- 
leys. These  "distance  rides  "  are  a  very  popular 
sport,  especially  among  officers,  and  are  highly 
encouraged  in  the  arm}'  as  an  excellent  training 
for  cavalry  men  in  scouting  and  carrying  de- 
spatches. Some  remarkable  records  have  been 
established  by  Swedish  officers  in  this  way. 

The  manner  in  which,  in  olden  times,  important 
news  used  to  be  transmitted  throughout  the  coun- 


266  Swedish  Life 

try,  furnishes  another  favourite  sport.  When  a 
call  to  arms  or  a  royal  order  had  to  be  sent  round 
in  the  days  when  posts  and  telegraphs  were 
unknown,  a  fleet-footed  peasant  was  entrusted 
with  a  "  messenger's  staff"  {budkafle),  by  means 
of  which  the  order  was  conveyed.  If  the  staff 
was  burned  at  one  end,  it  meant  that  a  forest  was 
burning,  and  the  people  were  summoned  to  help 
in  circumscribing  the  fire;  if  a  red  rag  was  tied  at 
the  end  of  the  staff  it  signified  that  the  country 
was  invaded,  and  all  fighting-men  were  called  to 
arms;  or  else  certain  words  were  burned  into  the 
staff  which  explained  the  meaning  of  the  king's 
order,  and  this  had  to  be  immediately  obeyed. 
With  the  "  messenger  staff"  in  hand  the  peasant 
started,  making  his  way  as  fast  as  he  could  to  the 
nearest  hamlet,  where  he  handed  it  to  the  head- 
man of  the  place,  who,  after  taking  cognizance  of 
it,  gave  it  to  the  fleetest  runner  in  his  household 
or  in  the  community,  who  set  off  to  carry  it,  at 
the  top  of  his  speed,  to  the  next  village.  It  was 
thus  sent  on  from  district  to  district,  traversing 
great  distances  with  wonderful  rapidity.  The 
rapidity  was  especially  great  in  winter,  when  the 
runners  could  use  their  skidor  and  glide  swiftly, 
almost  as  straight  as  the  crow  flies,  over  snow- 
covered  valleys  and  fields  and  hard-frozen  rivers 
and  lakes. 

This  practice  is  kept  up  nowadays  as  a  winter 
sport.  Skid-runners  are  started  to  carry  the 
"messenger-staff"  from  town  to  town,  for  several 


Sports  and  Games  267 

hundred  miles,  in  different  relays,  the  start  and 
arrival  at  each  relay  being  taken  with  sportsman- 
like precision.  The  rapidity  with  which  the  staff 
is  conveyed  in  this  way  over  long  distances  is 
astounding  in  the  aggregate  result;  the  staying 
powers  of  the  runners  being  equal  to  their  clever- 
ness in  making  the  straightest  run  from  point  to 
point,  and  taking  the  best  advantage  of  the  ground 
that  lies  before  them.  The  average  pace  main- 
tained is  from  six  to  seven  miles  an  hour.  In  one 
of  these  races,  the  staff  was  sent  in  three  relays, 
from  Bollnas  to  Hudiksvall,  from  Hudiksvall  to 
Sundsvall,  and  from  Sundsvall  to  Hernosand,  a 
total  distance  of  250  kilometres  (153  miles)  in  28 
hours  27  minutes,  though  the  country  is  hilly 
and  wooded.  On  another  occasion,  on  flat  coun- 
try, the  prize-winner  covered  the  distance  of  one 
of  the  relays,  220  kilometres,  in  21  hours  and  42 
minutes.  Another  did  his  relay  of  60  kilometres 
in  4  hours  and  13  minutes.  On  a  favourable  in- 
cline skid-jumpers  have  cleared  jumps  of  from  20 
to  33  metres  (65  to  98  feet).  Skid-runners  have, 
ever  since  the  days  of  Gustavus  Vasa,  been  used 
in  the  army  as  skirmishers  and  messengers. 
Every  regiment  has,  at  the  present  day,  its  com- 
pany of  skid-runners,  used  for  reconnoitring  and 
skirmishing.  The  men  are  trained  to  the  use  of 
the  skidor,  to  make  fast  runs  on  the  snow,  and  to 
shoot  after  a  run  and  a  spurt  without  losing  their 
steadiness  of  aim.  At  a  recent  performance,  these 
skirmishers  had  to  race  over  ten  kilometres  of 


268  Swedish  Life 

trying  ground  up  to  the  shooting-post,  drop  to 
the  ground  and  fire  ten  rounds  at  the  target. 
The  time  was  taken  from  the  start  to  the  last 
shot  fired,  and  the  prizes  were  awarded  for  the 
shortest  time  taken,  combined  with  the  highest 
points  made  at  the  target.  The  record  was  as 
follows:  ist  prize-winner,  i  h.  13  m.  13  s.,  71 
points;  2nd,  1  h.  2  m.  42  s.,  62  points;  3rd,  1  h. 
14  m.  5  s.,  65  points;  4th,  1  h.  20  m.  15  s.,  101 
points;  5th,  1  h.  5  m.  32  s.,  51  points. 

Skidlopning,  or  skid-running,  which,  in  the 
northern  provinces,  is  the  peasant's  principal 
mode  of  locomotion  in  winter,  and  the  easiest  way 
of  getting  over  the  long  distances  between  the 
widely  spread  homesteads,  is,  in  the  towns,  prac- 
tised as  a  favourite  winter  sport  by  the  youth  of 
Doth  sexes.  It  affords  excellent  exercise  and  a 
commodious  way  of  scouring  the  country  and  en- 
joying a  fine  "  outing"  on  a  bright  winter  day. 
When  the  sun  is  glittering  on  the  crisp  white 
snow,  the  sky  bright  and  clear,  the  still  air  brisk 
and  invigorating,  with  the  thermometer  anywhere 
between  ten  and  twenty  degrees  centigrade  below 
freezing  point,  the  woods  around  the  towns  are 
alive  with  young  men  and  women  gliding  on 
their  long  wooden  shafts  and  scouring  the  country 
in  bands.  No  exercise  is  more  exhilarating;  the 
warmth  produced  by  the  rapid  motion,  which 
brings  all  the  muscles  into  play  and  sends  the 
blood  coursing  through  the  veins,  can  defy  any 
amount  of  cold.     The  skidor,  made  of  fine  elastic 


Sports  and  Games  269 

and  highly  polished  wood,  is  about  twelve  feet 
long  and  four  inches  broad;  its  thickness,  which 
is  about  half  an  inch  in  the  centre  line  of  the  shaft, 
and  at  the  part  where  the  foot  rests,  being  paired 
off  on  the  outer  edges  to  the  thinness  of  a  blade, 
and  ending  in  a  point  in  front,  turned  up  about 
six  inches  from  the  ground.  The  foot,  shod  in  a 
reindeer  fur  moccasin,  is  lashed  to  the  long  thin 
shaft  at  its  centre  of  gravity  by  a  strap  round  the 
toes  and  a  thong  around  the  heel,  leaving  the  heel 
and  ankle  free  play  on  the  shaft,  which  is  shoved 
forward  with  a  slide  at  each  stride,  the  body  being 
balanced  alternately  on  the  sliding  skidor  while 
the  other  is  sent  gliding  on  in  turn,  and  the  feet 
being  hardly  ever  raised  from  the  ground.  The 
impetus  is  increased  by  the  aid  of  two  short  poles 
used  as  levers  by  a  stroke  of  the  arms.  The 
movement  is  rapid  and  graceful.  On  an  incline, 
both  feet  are  kept  together  and  the  skidor  are  al- 
lowed to  glide  along  parallel,  the  runner  balancing 
himself  evenly  on  both.  In  a  rapid  descent,  the 
impetus  becomes  tremendous;  but  this  a  clever 
skid-runner  modifies  and  controls  by  the  slight 
inclination  given  to  the  sliding  shafts,  holding 
himself  ready  to  veer  round  before  an  obstacle, — 
a  tree  or  a  bush, —  to  duck  under  an  outlying 
branch,  to  clear  a  precipice  by  a  jump,  or  to 
swerve  round  on  the  spot  if  the  obstacle  is  too 
formidable  to  be  cleared.  The  pace  attained  by 
a  practised  runner  is  very  great  on  the  descent  or 
the  plain,  though  tedious  and  slow  in  the  ascents, 


1 


270  Swedish  Life 

which  must  be  accomplished  in  a  zig-zag.  At  a 
recent  women's  race  over  2  kilometres  of  level 
ground  and  deep  snow,  the  distance  was  covered 
in  11  minutes  13  seconds  by  the  prize-winner,  the 
rest  following  at  a  few  seconds'  distance,  and  the 
last  taking  14  minutes  4  seconds.  The  long  run, 
30  kilometres,  over  undulating  broken  country, 
took  2  hours  23  minutes  50  seconds.  The  jumps 
performed  varied  from  18  to  28  metres.  The 
record  for  jumping  is  at  present  in  Sweden  33.40 
metres,  but  in  Norway,  where  the  art  of  skid- 
jumping  in  the  hilly  regions  is  more  extensively 
practised,  even  longer  jumps  have  been  accom- 
plished. 

Another  favourite  sport  of  skid-runners  is  glid- 
ing on  their  skidor  drawn  by  a  horse.  A  rope 
attached  to  the  traces  of  a  horse  in  single  harness 
is  fixed  by  a  loop  to  the  belt  of  the  runner,  who 
drives  the  horse  before  him  at  a  trot  or  a  gallop, 
gliding  after  it,  resting  on  both  skidor  as  he  is 
dragged  by  the  traces.  The  weight  is  very  slight 
on  the  horse,  and  the  man  is  relieved  of  all  effort 
except  that  of  balancing  himself  on  his  sliding 
skidor  and  regulating  the  pace  in  keeping  them 
more  or  less  parallel.  Some  expertness  in  this  is 
required,  and  a  delicate  handling  of  the  reins  to 
keep  the  pace  of  the  horse  in  unison  with  the 
gliding  motion  over  undulating  ground.  A  pace 
of  15  kilometres  an  hour  is  easily  kept  up  for  long 
distances.  From  Stromsholm,  the  Military  Riding 
School,  to  Stockholm,  a  distance  of  150  kilometres, 


a 

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u 
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Sports  and  Games  271 

is  easily  done  in  about  ten  hours.  In  a  race  from 
Upsala  to  Djursholm,  about  70  kilometres  (67  as 
the  crow  flies),  the  distance  was  done  in  2  hours 
30  minutes  30  seconds.  On  a  fine  winter  day, 
one  often  sees  both  ladies  and  gentlemen  driv- 
ing about  in  the  environs  of  Stockholm  in  this 
peculiar  tean^.  The  system  is  also  used  in  the 
Army  as  a  means  of  moving  up  infantry  rapidly 
to  the  front.  Eight  or  ten  infantry  soldiers  on 
their  skidor,  each  holding  a  rope  fastened  to  the 
saddle  of  a  dragoon,  are  thus  hauled  along  swiftly, 
manoeuvring  their  foot-gear  so  as  to  keep  at  a 
requisite  distance  from  the  horse  and  each  other 
as  they  glide  along  after  the  trotting  horseman. 

Thanks  to  the  numerous  lakes  and  waterways 
spread  over  the  country,  and  frozen  several  feet 
deep  throughout  the  winter,  skating  is  also  a  na- 
tional sport,  in  the  broadest  sense  of  the  word,  in 
Sweden.  Every  boy  and  girl  has  learned  early  to 
feel  at  ease  on  a  pair  of  skates,  and  every  town 
and  village  has  its  skating  common.  Both  the 
championship  of  Europe  and  that  of  the  world  in 
figure-skating  are  at  present  held  by  Swedes. 
Hockey  on  the  ice  is  a  favourite  game  with 
skaters,  and  the  annual  matches  played  by  the 
crack  teams  of  Stockholm  and  Upsala  are  great 
sporting  events.  Sailing  on  skates  is  another 
form  of  sport  on  the  ice.  A  sail  of  from  four  to 
five  square  metres  mounted  on  light  bamboos  is 
held  against  the  shoulder,  the  body  on  the  lee 
side  of  it,  the  arm  and  hand  acting  as  lever  and 


272  Swedish  Life 

sheet  clue,  while  the  skates  perform  the  office  of 
rudder.  The  skater  can  thus  scud  before  the 
wind  or  cruise  about  and  tack  by  manoeuvring  his 
sail  so  as  to  react  on  the  pressure  of  his  skates. 
The  pace  attained  thus  is  very  great,  forty  to  fifty 
miles  an  hour  at  times.  Sailing  ice-boats  are  also 
much  in  use.  They  are  of  different  construction, 
the  simpler  ones  consisting  of  a  plank  on  two 
cross-beams  resting  on  slides,  with  a  powerful 
rudder.  They  sail  very  fast  on  a  blank  sheet  of 
ice.  Curling  is  especially  in  favour  at  Gothen- 
burg, but  not  much  practised  in  the  rest  of  the 
country.  Tobogganing  is  more  universal,  and  a 
prime  favourite  with  school  children  everywhere. 
Any  number  may  be  seen  after  school  hours  dis- 
porting themselves  in  the  parks  and  commons, 
wherever  as  sufficient  incline  offers  a  space  for  a 
rapid  slide  on  the  little  sledge  (kclke),  which  the 
owner  guides  with  his  foot  used  as  a  rudder  be- 
hind. In  the  sporting-grounds  {Idrottsparken) 
near  Stockholm,  a  special  ice-course  on  a  rapid  in- 
cline is  kept  up  for  this  sport,  where,  on  fine 
winter  evenings,  grand  kelkakning,  or  toboggan- 
ing parties,  take  place. 

The  summer  sports  of  Sweden  are  pretty  much 
x  those  of  other  countries.  Football  and  cycling 
may  be  mentioned  as  the  most  generally  preva- 
lent. L,awn-tennis  is  played  a  good  deal,  both  in 
summer  and  winter — thanks  to  the  fine  indoor 
courts  at  Stockholm  and  Upsala.  The  Crown 
Prince,  who  is  a  crack  player  himself,  is  much 


Sports  and  Games  273 

interested  in  the  game,  and  it  is  due  to  his  en- 
couragement that  the  high  standard  of  play  is 
kept  up.  The  international  tournaments,  which 
take  place  every  spring  at  the  Stockholm  Lawn- 
tennis  Pavilions,  are  frequented  by  some  of  the 
best  players  of  Europe. 

Shooting  and  fishing  form  part  of  the  standard 
occupations  of  country  life.  The  game  laws  of 
Sweden  are  not  severe  or  exclusive,  and,  generally 
speaking,  game  is  not  closely  preserved,  as  in 
England.  Reared  game  is,  with  very  few  excep- 
tions, unknown.  All  game  is  wild,  breeding  and 
leading  its  free  life  in  the  forest,  with  very  little 
or  no  protection  as  far  as  the  gamekeeper  is  con- 
cerned. Nevertheless,  poaching  is  comparatively 
rare.  With  the  exceptions  of  animals  classed  as 
"  noxious,"  of  which  mention  has  been  made 
above,  and  which  may  be  shot  by  any  one,  and 
the  destruction  of  which  is  a  paid  service  rendered 
to  the  community,  the  law  establishes  that  all 
game  belongs  emphatically  to  the  owner  of  the 
land  upon  which  it  is  found.  In  public  opinion, 
it  is  as  much  his  as  the  poultry  in  his  yard,  the 
potatoes  in  his  field,  or  the  fruit  in  his  orchard. 
Poaching  is  therefore  looked  upon  in  the  same 
light  as  any  other  theft,  and  condemned  by  the 
strict  morality  of  the  people.  The  receiver  or 
seller  of  poached  game  would  be  treated  ex- 
actly as  the  receiver  or  seller  of  stolen  goods. 
The  laws  for  the  protection  of  game  during  the 

prohibited  season  are  severe,  and  enforced  by 
18 


274  Swedish  Life 

pecuniary  penalties.  A  heavy  fine  is  exacted  for 
every  head  of  game  shot  out  of  season,  and  a  still 
heavier  fine,  besides  confiscation,  for  illegal  game 
offered  for  sale.  The  seasons  for  legal  shooting 
vary  in  different  parts  of  the  country,  i.  e. ,  in  the 
North  and  the  South. 

The  king  of  big  game  is  the  elk,  which  breeds 
wild  in  the  forests  of  Central  and  some  parts  of 
Northern  Sweden.  Shooting  elk  is  legal  only 
during  fifteen  days  of  the  year,  from  the  ist  to  the 
15th  of  September.  About  two  thousand  of  these 
stately,  antediluvian-looking  animals,  of  the  size 
of  an  ox,  are  shot  every  year,  mostly  in  the  royal 
hunting-grounds  of  Hunneberg.  The  elk  is  an 
ungainly  animal,  higher  in  the  withers  than  it  is 
long  in  body,  with  an  enormous  head,  large  flap- 
ping ears,  broad,  palmated  antlers,  and  a  heavy 
overlapping  upper  lip,  which  has  given  rise  to  the 
joke  that  he  walks  backwards  when  he  grazes  to 
raise  his  lip,  which  trails  on  the  ground.  He 
feeds,  however,  on  sprouts  of  trees  as  well  as  on 
the  short  grass  and  mosses  on  swampy  ground. 
The  stag  stands  as  much  as  seven  to  eight  feet 
high,  and  weighs  over  one  thousand  pounds. 
His  hind  legs  being  shorter  than  his  fore  legs,  he 
has  an  awkward  shambling  gait,  trots  with  im- 
mense strides,  and  goes  at  a  great  pace  when  he 
is  put  to  flight.  He  frequently  takes  to  the  water, 
being  an  excellent  swimmer.  Except  in  the  royal 
battues  at  Hunneberg,  the  elk  are  generally  hunted 
with  dogs,  who  follow  the  scent,  the  sportsmen 


Sports  and  Games  275 

following  the  track,  sometimes  for  miles,  till  a 
rifle  shot  can  be  got  at  one.  Their  rapid  pace 
and- very  shy  nature  make  it  very  difficult  to 
approach  them,  unless  well  to  windward  of  them. 
They  offer  fine  sport,  however,  during  the  short 
season  in  which  shooting  them  is  legal.  In  win- 
ter, they  are  more  easily  approached  on  the  snow; 
they  seem  to  feel  instinctively  that  they  have  the 
law  on  their  side,  and  that  a  shot  at  them  entails 
a  very  heavy  fine. 

Although  bears  are  much  rarer  than  they  used 
to  be,  they  are  not  infrequently  met  with  in  the 
forests  of  the  North.  The  Swedish  peasant  is 
very  keen  in  tracking  him,  although  he  has  not 
always  the  best  of  the  encounter,  and  the  single 
sportsman  met  by  a  bear  has  very  small  chances 
against  him  if  he  fails  to  kill  the  bear  before  he 
closes  up  with  his  assailant.  But  there  is  a  pecu- 
liar fascination  in  the  hunt  which  lies,  perhaps,  in 
its  very  danger.  The  bear,  with  all  its  apparent 
ungainliness  and  lack  of  lithesomeness  in  its  move- 
ments, is  a  formidable  opponent,  majestic  and 
powerful,  instilling  fear  and  respect  as  well  into 
mankind  as  into  the  brute  creation.  The  blow 
of  his  paw  is  as  formidable  as  his  bite,  crushing 
and  relentless,  and  his  aspect,  when  roused,  is 
brutally  fierce.  There  is  no  hunting,  in  the  opin- 
ion of  the  most  experienced  bear  hunters,  which 
requires  greater  steadiness  of  nerve,  and  is  more 
fit  to  teach  hardihood  and  pluck  in  meeting 
danger.     The  chance  of  attending  a  bear-hunt  is 


276  Swedish  Life 

seldom  neglected  in  the  northern  districts,  where 
bears  are  still  to  be  found.  A  bear  skall — the 
process  of  tracking  and  surrounding  a  bear  in  his 
lair — is  a  great  popular  event,  in  which  the  whole 
neighbourhood  joins.  The  peasant  who  discovers 
the  signs  of  his  presence  in  the  forest,  then  fol- 
lows him  doggedly  on  the  sly  for  days  till  he  has 
spotted  his  lair  and  made  sure  of  his  where- 
abouts. This  gives  him  a  right  to  the  skin  and 
the  premium,  if  the  bear  is  killed.  Sometimes  he 
sells  his  secret  to  some  keen  sportsman  eager  to  be 
first  in  the  approach.  The  bear  skall,  or  pursuit, 
is  then  organised;  the  sportsmen  and  beaters  sur- 
round the  spot  at  a  distance  and  converge  towards 
it  simultaneously,  approaching  the  lair  till  the 
bear  is  ousted  and  attacked.  He  always  fights 
valiantly  and  dies  hard,  not  infrequently  disabling 
some  of  his  asailants  before  he  is  killed. 

In  the  way  of  other  large  game,  the  red- 
deer,  the  roe-deer,  and  the  fallow-deer  may  be 
mentioned.  They  are  to  be  found  only  in  the 
southern  provinces  (with  the  exception  of  the 
royal  preserves  at  Gripsholm,  on  the  Malar),  and 
principally  in  Scania. 

Among  feathered  game,  the  blackcock  (orre), 
the  capercailzie  (l/dder),  the  hazel-hen,  orgelinotte 
(Jijerpe),  the  ripa,  a  sort  of  grey-grouse,  or  ptar- 
migan, with  the  woodcock,  the  partridge,  the 
quail,  and  the  snipe,  are  the  principal,  and  offer 
fine  sport  between  August  and  February  (March 
in  the  North),  when  shooting  them  is  in  season. 


Sports  and  Games  277 

Abundance  of  wild  ducks,  geese,  and  swans  are 
to  be  found  on  the  lakes  and  along  the  coast. 
The  season  for  them  begins  on  July  21st.  Hares 
are  also  plentiful;  they  are  light  grey  in  summer 
and  quite  white  in  winter.  The  shooting  of 
hares,  as  well  as  of  feather  game,  is  done  with 
dogs — beagles,  pointers,  cockers,  and  setters — 
very  rarely  in  battues.  As  all  the  game  is  wild, 
that  is,  self-breeding  and  practically  unpreserved, 
anything  like  the  hecatombs  of  game  and  the 
huge  number  of  braces  which  go  to  make  up  a 
"fine  bag"  in  England  is  unknown  in  Swedish 
shooting  parties;  but  there  is  perhaps  more  real 
sport,  certainly  greater  exhilaration  in  tracking 
and  shooting  the  wild  game  in  its  forest  freedom 
atid  natural  life. 

Fishing  in  the  lakes  and  rivers  is  particularly 
abundant.  The  lakes  cover  an  immense  area, 
and  are  mostly  open  to  the  sea.  The  Vener, 
emptying  itself  into  the  North  Sea  by  the  Gota 
Elf,  is  the  largest  lake  in  Europe,  being  ninety 
miles  long  by  fifty  wide  at  places.  The  Veter, 
running  into  the  Baltic  by  the  Motala,  is  eighty 
miles  long  and  twenty  miles  in  breadth.  Between 
Stockholm  and  Tornea  in  the  north  perhaps  a 
hundred  rivers  may  be  met  with  running  into  the 
Baltic,  some  of  which,  such  as  the  Dal,  the  Ume, 

o 

the  Pite,  the  L,ule,  the  Angerman,  the  Indal,  the 
Ljunga,  and  the  Ljusna  are  of  great  magnitude. 
They  all  abound  with  salmon,  but  are  extensively 
fished  with   nets  and   weirs,  and  are  not  very 


278  Swedish  Life 

favourable  for  fly-fishing.  The  rivers  falling 
into  the  North  Sea  and  Cattegat  are  preferable  in 
this  respect,  and  the  salmon  in  the  southern  dis- 
tricts is  supposed  to  be  of  superior  quality.     The 

o 

rivers  Viska,  Atra,  Nissa,  I^aga,  Morum,  and  Em 
on  the  south  and  west  coasts  are  fine  salmon  re- 
sorts. In  all,  about  forty  of  the  rivers  of  Sweden 
are  salmon  rivers,  having  a  total  length  of  9000 
kilometres,  of  which  about  3700  kilometres  are 
frequented  by  salmon,  which  in  large  num- 
bers find  their  way  into  the  lakes  Vener,  Veter, 
Storsjo,  and  Silja.  The  annual  produce  of  the 
salmon  fisheries  represents  about  950,000  crowns 
a  year.  The  best  fishing  for  the  fly  is  the 
trout  fishing  in  the  North.  Trout  ilax-bring)  is 
plentiful  at  the  head  of  the  rapids,  where  the 
rivers  leave  the  lakes,  and  in  those  joining  the 
smaller  lakes  together.  In  summer,  any  quantity 
may  be  taken  with  the  fly.  Besides  salmon  and 
trout,  the  lakes  contain  abundance  of  perch 
(aborrc),  pike  (gedda),  grayling  (har),  char 
(roding),  roach  (niort),  bleak  (Joga),  burbot  (lake), 
and  other  fish,  which  are  taken  with  the  line  as 
well  as  with  trimmers  and  nets.  The  perch  and 
pike,  which  attain  a  large  size,  offer  excellent 
sport  for  the  angler. 

L,ove  of  nature  and  attachment  to  the  special 
scenery  of  his  country,  which  characterise  the 
Swede,  combine  with  his  innate  partiality  for  out- 
of-door  life  to  make  him  love  sport  in  all  its 
branches  which  bring  him  in  closer  contact  with 


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Sports  and  Games  279 

nature  and  the  landscape  surrounding  him.  He 
has  an  inborn  feeling  for  its  grand  sombre  forests 
andv  smiling  lakes,  and  for  the  varying  aspects 
they  assume  in  the  extremes  of  the  climate.  His 
patriotism  is  but  an  enlargement  of  this  intense 
feeling  for  the  majestic  beauty  of  his  land,  for  the 
scenery  amid  which  he  has  been  born  and  bred. 
The  French  philosopher's  definition  of  patriotism 
as  an  extended  love  of  the  hearth  and  home — la 
patrie  d est  le  foyer  agrandi — may  well  be  applied 
to  him.  His  deep  and  sincere  patriotic  feeling  is 
but  an  expansion  of  his  great  love  for  the  wood- 
clad  and  lake- washed  valley  over  which  curls  the 
smoke  of  his  ancestral  homestead. 


INDEX 

Academies,  83,  256 

Agricultural  lands,  204;  population,  206;   produce,  213; 

estates,   231,    233;    machinery,   217;    labourer,    234; 

wages,  235 
Almquist,  K.J.  L.,  123 
Army,  the,  56,  59,  206,  271 
Art,  the  Vikings',  141;  early  monuments  of,  142;  Gothic 

and  Renaissance,  142,  143;  modern  Swedish,   159  et 

seq. 
Artists,  younger  generation  of,  173 

Bear-hunting,  275 

Bellman's  Day,  111;  songs,  112 

Bernadotte,  Marshal,  Prince  de  Ponte  Corvo,  40,  41 

Bremer,  Frederika,  125,  126,  179 

Cabinet,  the,  55 

Carl,  Prince,  Duke  of  WestergStland,  50,  70 

Carldn,  Emilie,  125 

Cattle-raising,  213 

Cederstrom,  Baron  Gustave,  169,  172 

Charles  XII.,  5,  24,  153,  172 

Charles  XV.,  168 

Chdteaux,  6,  10,  146,  229,  240,  243 

Churches,  rural,  212 

Clergy,  the,  181,  188;  stipends  of,  189 

Climate,  16 

281 


282  Index 

Confirmation,  rite  of,  94 
Constitution,  the,  39,  42,  44 
Costumes,  peasant,  228   «» 
Crime,  201 
Crown  Prince,  the,  50 

Dairy,  the,  209,  215;  produce,  233 
Death-rate,  the,  187 
Divorces,  201 

Education,  the  Folkskola,  90 ;  secondary  schools,  95 ; 
girls'  schools,  99;  mixed  schools,  100;  high  schools, 
108;  universities,  101;  scholarships,  105;  university 
extension,  106 

Ehrenstrahl,  149 

Electorate,  the,  45 

Elk-shooting,  274 

Emigration,  239 

Engagements,  109 

Erik  XIV.,  22,  169 

Eugene,  Prince,  Duke  of  Nerike,  49,  70,  107,  174 

Examinations,  100 

Festivities,  hi,  225 
Finances,  55 
Fishing,  277 
Flowers,  love  of,  66 
Fogelberg,  163 
Forests,  219,  221 
Forsberg,  174 
Froding,  Gustave,  134 

Game  laws,  273 

Geijer,  115 

Geijerstam,  Gustave  af,  130 

Girl,  the  modern,  244 


Index  28 

Gota  Canal,  the,  9 

Gotaland,  3 

Gustavus  Adolphus,  23 

Gustavus  Adolphus,  Prince,  Duke  of  Skane,  50 

Gustavus  III.,  28 

Gustavus  IV.,  39 

Gustavus  Vasa,  21,  63 

Gymnastics,  93 

Hallstrom,  Per,  134 

Hasselberg,  175 

Hedberg,  Tor,  134 

Hedin,  Sven,  32,  249 

Heidenstam,  Verner  von,  31,  33,  130-132 

Hockert,  68,  166 

Hockey  on  the  ice,  271 

Horberg,  158 

House  of  Nobles,  the,  87,  147 

Ice-boaTS  and  ice-boat  sailing,  272 
Idrott,  sports,  262 
Industries,  224;  rural,  21  r 
Instruction,  public,  108 
Iron  and  steel,  222 

John  III.,  22,  23 
Justice,  53,  191 

Key,  Ellen,  136 
Knorring,  Sophie  von,  125 
Krafft,  David,  153 
Kronberg,  Julius,  169,  171 

Lafrensen,  N.,  155 
Lagerlof,  Selma,  136 
Lakes,  9 


-v 


284  Index 

Larsson,  Carl,  178 

Levertin,  Oscar,  130,  133,  156 

Liljefors,  Bruno,  176 

Lindegren,  Amalia,  167 

Ling,  115 

Liquor  traffic,  the,  192;  the  Gothenburg  system,  193;  the 

temperance  movement,  199 
Local  self-government,  181,  184,  24? 
Lundegard,  Axel,  134 
Lundgren,  Egron,  167 

Malar,  lake,  9,  62 
May-pole  dance,  231 
Merchant  shipping,  207 
Messenger  staff,  carrying  the,  266 
Ministers  of  State,  54 
Morality,  public,  201 
Music,  72,  104 

NaTHORT,  Arctic  explorer,  249 

Naturalism  in  literature,  129,  130 

Naval  cadets,  207 

Navy,  the,  207 

Neo-classicism  in  art,  160 

Nobel,  Alfred,  the  dynamite  king,  249 

Nobel  prizes,  258,  260 

Nobility,  the,  13,  87 

Nordenskiold,  Arctic  explorer,  249 

Norrland,  2 

Odin,  Thor,  and  Balder,  163 
Opera,  the,  71 
Oscar  II.,  6,  41,  43,  7° 
Oscar,  Prince,  Admiral,  70 
Overcrowding  the  towns,  79 


Index  285 

Palace,  the  Royal,  69 
Parish,  the,  182 

Peasant,  the  freehold,  13;  migration   to  towns,  15;  life, 
*     211,  236 
Poor-relief,  185 

Population,  2;  density  of,  8,  11 
Press,  the,  125,  241 
Productiveness  of  the  soil,  218 
Protection  versus  Free  Trade,  58 
Provincial  administration,  190 

Racing,  262 

Rates,  the,  81 

Riksdag,  members  of  the,  44;  how  elected,  45;  opening 

of  the,  48  ;  work,  52;  parties,  58 
Rosen,  Count  George  von,  169,  170 
Roslin,  156 
Runeberg,  121 
Rydberg,  Victor,  126 

Salmon  rivers,  277 
Sanatoria  for  tuberculosis,  188 
Scandinavian  Peninsula,  1 
School  baths,  93 
School  kitchens,  92 
Sergei,  159 
Skating,  271 

Skidor,  wooden  snow-shoes,  268 
Skokloster,  11,  146 
Sloyd,  92 

Snoilsky,  Count,  31,  126,  128 
Sports,  love  of,  278 

Stockholm,  foundation  of,  62;  aspects  of,  66,  74;  dwell- 
ings. 77;  romance,  82 
Stockholmer,  the,  73,  85 


286  Index 

Strindberg,  129 

Suicides,  201 

Svealand,  3 

Swedes,  their  language,  19;  character,  32;  patriotism,  33, 

politeness,  34 
Swedish  artists,  in  France,  155;  *n  England,  157,  158,  l67 

Taxation,  55;  income-tax,  56 

Tegne>,  5,  3°>  94,  "5,  n8,  163 

Temperance  orders,  199 

Tessin,  Count,  tutor  of  Gustavus  III.,  155 

Tessin,  Nicodemus,  146 

Tessin,  the  younger,  67,  147 

Thirty  Years'  War,  spoils  of  the,  144 

Tido,  11,  146 

Topelius,  123 

Town  Councils,  183 

Union  with  Norway,  37 

VARAGERS,  or  Varangians,  3 
Vener,  lake,  9 
Vetter,  lake,  9 
Vikings,  3,  62,  141,  164 
Village,  the  Swedish,  12 

Weai/Th,  distribution  of,  186 

William,  Prince,  Duke  of  Sodermanland,  50 

Winter,  17 

Wirsen,  Carl  David  af,  126 

Woman  in  literature,  136;  her  status,  246 

ZORN,  A.,  174 


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